Method and apparatus for clustering platform sessions and user accounts associated with the platform sessions

ABSTRACT

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods, systems, apparatuses, and computer program products that provide for an improved and more efficient system for transmitting content to client devices. The embodiments disclose an apparatus that clusters user behavior based on platform session records. The platform session records comprise stored data associated with a plurality of user inputs received by the system for the duration of a platform session. The apparatus and methods transform the platform session records into data comprising a form that is usable for identifying clusters of platform sessions. As a result of the clustering methodologies, the apparatus is configured to deliver content specifically optimized for users of client devices. The present disclosure thus provides for an improved networked system that reduces the amount of data transferred via the network and allows for a more efficient system that has reduced infrastructure requirements and improved performance.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. Non-Provisional applicationSer. No. 16/434,757, entitled “METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CLUSTERINGPLATFORM SESSIONS AND USER ACCOUNTS ASSOCIATED WITH THE PLATFORMSESSIONS”, and filed Jun. 7, 2019, which claims priority to and thebenefit of US Provisional Application No. 62/682,488, entitled “METHODAND APPARATUS FOR CLUSTERING PLATFORM SESSIONS AND USER ACCOUNTSASSOCIATED WITH THE PLATFORM SESSIONS”, and filed Jun. 8, 2018, each ofwhich is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate, generally, to tracking,storing, retrieving and clustering data comprising user behavior ascaptured by user input data collected during platform sessions.

BACKGROUND

Promotional systems provide electronic promotions data to user devicesvia various platforms such as mobile applications or web browsers. Usersmay access such electronic promotions data using various devices,including mobile devices (e.g., mobile phone, tablet, etc.) or desktopdevices (e.g., personal computer, workstation, etc.). Varioustechnologies and techniques exist for monitoring user behavior based ontheir mobile application and web browser activity. Applicant hasidentified a variety of improvements associated with such technologiesand techniques as further discussed herein.

BRIEF SUMMARY

A system, apparatus, and method are provided to, in general, improvesystems that track user input data during platform sessions. Morespecifically, embodiments provided herein may include a system,apparatus and method for clustering platform sessions and user accountsassociated with the platform sessions. The system, apparatus, and methodinclude at least one processor coupled to a data repository, and thedata repository stores computer-executable instructions that may beexecuted by the process, which causes the processor(s) to performvarious steps. Thus, the system, and apparatus and method provide for atleast one processor configured to access the data repository in order toaccess sessions data associated with the platform sessions. The sessionsdata include a plurality of session records, and in turn, each sessionrecord includes a session identifier, a first-level platform engagementcount, a second-level platform engagement count, a platform query count,and a platform output status indicator.

The system, apparatus, and method provide for retrieving, from the datarepository and for each session record, the first-level platformengagement count to generate an intermediate first-level platformengagement count. The intermediate first-level platform engagement countis at least partially determined by dividing the first-level platformengagement count by a first-level platform engagement normalizationfactor. Further, the first-level platform engagement normalizationfactor is common among all session records.

The system, apparatus, and method further provide for storing theintermediate first-level platform engagement count and associate theintermediate first-level platform engagement count with a sessionidentifier. The system, apparatus, and method store the intermediatefirst-level platform engagement count for each session record in thedata repository.

The system, apparatus, and method further retrieve for each sessionrecord, and from the data repository, the second-level platformengagement count, the platform query count, and the intermediatefirst-level platform engagement count in order to generate transformedsession records data. The transformed session records data includes atransformed second-level platform engagement count, a transformedplatform query count, and a transformed first-level platform engagementcount. Further, the transformed second-level platform engagement countis at least partially determined by dividing the second-level platformengagement count by a session-specific normalization factor. Likewise,the transformed platform query count is at least partially determined bydividing the second-level platform engagement count by thesession-specific normalization factor. Lastly, the transformedfirst-level platform engagement count is at least partially determinedby dividing the intermediate first-level platform engagement count bythe session-specific normalization factor.

In the steps described above, the system, apparatus, and methoddetermine the session-specific normalization is separately for eachsession record. The system, apparatus, and method do so by adding thesecond-level platform engagement count, the platform query count, andthe intermediate first-level platform engagement count of each sessionrecord.

The system, apparatus, and method further identify a plurality ofclusters, where each cluster is associated with a subset of the platformsessions. The step of identifying the clusters utilizes the transformedsecond-level platform engagement count, the transformed platform querycount, and the transformed first-level platform engagement count.Finally, for this step, each platform session of the plurality ofplatform sessions is associated with one cluster.

In at least some embodiments, the system, apparatus, and method providefor storing the transformed session records data in the data repositoryand for each session record. Further, the system, apparatus, and methodassociate the transformed session records data with a sessionidentifier.

In some embodiments, the system, apparatus, and method provide formapping, for each session record, the transformed session records dataon a three-dimensional space. The mapping is based on sessioncoordinates data that includes the transformed second-level platformengagement count, the transformed platform query count, and thetransformed first-level platform engagement count. Further, the sessioncoordinates data define a platform session location in thethree-dimensional space.

In some embodiments, the plurality of clusters include classificationsforbad hunters, scrollers, bouncers, gatherers, and hunters.

In some embodiments, the system, apparatus, and method provide forsending, to the client device, interactive promotional interface data.In these embodiments, the interactive promotional interface datapresents to a user of the client device an interactive promotionalinterface that, in turn, presents impressions. The interactivepromotional interface has a first configuration for when a first userassociated with a first user account is logged into the client device.In these embodiments, the first user account is associated with a firstcluster identifier. Further, the interactive promotional interface has asecond configuration for when a second user associated with a seconduser account is logged into the client device. Similar to the first useraccount, the second user account is associated with a second clusteridentifier.

As previously described, the system, apparatus, and method provide foridentifying a plurality of clusters. In some embodiments, thisidentifying step includes the following steps: (a) determine a number ofclusters to be identified; (b) generate, based on the number of clustersto be identified, a plurality of cluster-defining data, eachcluster-defining data comprising a cluster identifier and centroidcoordinates data, wherein the centroid coordinates data defines acentroid location in a three-dimensional space, and wherein initialvalues for the centroid coordinates data are randomly assigned; (c)associate, for each session record, the session identifier with acluster identifier based on a determination of a distance between aplatform session location in the three-dimensional space and a pluralityof centroid locations in the three-dimensional space, wherein theplurality of centroid locations comprise centroid locations defined bythe centroid coordinates data, and wherein the platform session locationis defined by the transformed sessions records data; (d) modify, foreach cluster-defining data, the centroid coordinates data to cause thecentroid location to correspond to a center of mass in thethree-dimensional space, wherein a determination of the center of massis based on session records associated with the cluster identifier; and(e) repeat steps (c)-(d) until the centroid coordinates data remains thesame between consecutive iterations of steps (c)-(d).

In some embodiments, the system, apparatus, and method further providefor receiving, from a client device, user account data associated with auser account. The system, apparatus, and method further associate theuser account with one of the cluster identifiers corresponding to one ofthe plurality of clusters.

In some embodiments, the system, apparatus, and method further providefor associating each of a plurality of user accounts with one of theplurality of clusters via a cluster identifier. Further, the system,apparatus, and method send, to a client device, A/B testing interfacedata configured to cause the client device to display an A/B interface.The A/B interface enables user selection of one of the plurality ofclusters, and it presents experiment results based at least in part onthe user selection of one of the plurality of clusters. In anotherembodiment, the system, apparatus, and method include at least oneprocessor coupled to a data repository, which includescomputer-executable instructions that, when executed by theprocessor(s), configure the processor(s) to execute a number of steps.In this manner, the system, apparatus, and method provide for collectingand storing a plurality of platform session records rows in the datarepository. Here, each of the plurality of platform session records rowsincludes data at least partially related to user input data providedduring a platform sessions. Additionally, each of the plurality ofplatform session records rows includes a platform session identifier.The system, apparatus, and method further generate a plurality ofsession coordinates data at least partially based on the plurality ofplatform session records rows. The system, apparatus, and method furthergenerate cluster-defining data for two or more clusters. Thecluster-defining data includes a cluster identifier and centroidcoordinates data. The system, apparatus, and method further associateeach of the plurality of session records rows with one of the two ormore clusters. The system, apparatus, and method further iterativelydetermine, for each of the two or more clusters, a center of mass basedon a subset of the plurality of session records rows. Here, the subsetof the plurality of session records rows includes session records rowsassociated with the cluster identifier corresponding to the cluster.Finally, the system, apparatus, and method provide for iterativelymodifying, for each of the two or more clusters, the centroidcoordinates data with values corresponding to the center of mass.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Having thus described some embodiments in general terms, reference willnow be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarilydrawn to scale, and wherein:

FIG. 1 shows an example of a system in accordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of example circuitry inaccordance with some embodiments;

FIG. 3 shows an example method for clustering user behavior based onplatform session records;

FIG. 4 shows an example method for generating transformed sessionrecords usable for clustering user behavior;

FIG. 5 shows an example method for generating clusters based on sessionrecords;

FIG. 6 shows an example embodiment of sessions data comprising sessionrecords;

FIG. 7 shows an example embodiment of a homepage displayed as part of aninteractive promotional interface;

FIG. 8 shows an example embodiment of an interactive promotionalinterface presenting at least plurality of tiles and a query inputcomponent:

FIG. 9 shows an example embodiment of an interactive promotionalinterface presenting an item view;

FIG. 10 shows an example embodiment of an interactive promotionalinterface presenting another configuration comprising a larger number oftiles than a previous configuration (such as the embodiment depicted inFIG. 7 );

FIGS. 11A and 11B show example embodiments of a three-dimensional spacecomprising mappings of platform sessions;

FIG. 12 shows an example embodiment depicting a visualization of amethod for clustering user behavior based on platform sessions;

FIG. 13 shows an example embodiment of categorization boundaries basedon clustering user behavior,

FIG. 14 shows an example embodiment of an A/B testing interface thatincorporates clustering of user behavior;

FIGS. 15A and 15B show example first and second layouts that may bepresented by an interactive promotional interface depending on thecluster identifier associated with a user account; and

FIGS. 16A and 16B show example signal diagrams of an example data flow.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described morefully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in whichsome, but not all embodiments of the present disclosure are shown.Indeed, the present disclosure may be embodied in many different formsand should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forthherein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosurewill satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to likeelements throughout.

As used herein, the terms “data,” “content,” “information,” and similarterms may be used interchangeably to refer to data capable of beingcaptured, transmitted, received, stored, or a combination thereof inaccordance with embodiments of the present disclosure. Thus, use of anysuch terms should not be taken to limit the spirit and scope ofembodiments of the present disclosure. Further, where a computing deviceis described herein to receive data from another computing device, itwill be appreciated that the data may be received directly from theanother computing device or may be received indirectly via one or moreintermediary computing devices, such as, for example, one or moreservers, relays, routers, network access points, base stations, hosts,and the like, sometimes referred to herein as a “network.” Similarly,where a computing device is described herein to send data to anothercomputing device, it will be appreciated that the data may be sentdirectly to the another computing device or may be sent indirectly viaone or more intermediary computing devices, such as, for example, one ormore servers, relays, routers, network access points, base stations,hosts, and the like.

As used herein, the term “promotional system” refers to one or morecomputing devices that are accessible to users over a network and thatoperate to provide promotion services, marketing services, or both onbehalf of one or more providers that are offering one or moreinstruments that are redeemable for goods, services, experiences and thelike. In some examples, the promotion and marketing service may take theform of a redemption authority, a payment processor, a rewards provider,an entity in a financial network, a promoter, an agent and the like. Assuch, the promotional system is, in some example embodiments, configuredto present one or more promotions via one or more impressions, acceptpayments for promotions from consumers, issue instruments uponacceptance of an offer, participate in redemption, generate rewards,provide a point of sale device or service, issue payments to providersor otherwise participate in the exchange of goods, services orexperiences for currency, value and the like. The promotional system isalso, in some example embodiments, configured to offer merchant servicessuch as promotion building (e.g., assisting merchants with selectingparameters for newly created promotions), promotion counseling (e.g.,offering information to merchants to assist with using promotions asmarketing), promotion analytics (e.g., offering information to merchantsto provide data and analysis regarding the costs andreturn-on-investment associated with offering promotions), and the like.

As used herein, the term “client device” refers to an apparatusconfigured to access and present data provided by a server ofpromotional system. In that sense, a client device is configured forsending and receiving data to and from a server of the promotionalsystem. Additionally, the client device, in some embodiments, isconfigured for presenting content via a display. The client deviceaccesses content of the promotional system such as, for example, byaccessing a website (e.g., using a web browser) hosted by a promotionalsystem or executing a mobile application configured to present dataprovided by the promotional system. Some examples of client devicesinclude, without limitation, standalone computers, set-top boxes, mobiledevices such as a laptop, mobile phone, tablet, smart watch,head-mounted display or the like. A person having ordinary skill in theart would recognize that other variations of client devices arecontemplated in this disclosure, for example, this disclosurecontemplates that a client device may comprise a point-of-sale device ata merchant location, a computing device configured to displayinformation inside of a vehicle such as a car, boat, or aircraft, andthe like. In some embodiments, a client device sends request data to thepromotional system, such as in response to a consumer activityfacilitated by a user interface such as, without limitation, clicking alink, selecting particular text or image data, inputting or enteringdata, or a combination thereof. In some embodiments, a client device isassociated with a client device identifier. In some embodiments, aclient device is a “consumer device,” which is a client device used by auser to access the promotional system such as to view and, potentially,purchase promotions offered by merchants. In other embodiments, a clientdevice is a “merchant device,” which is a client device used by amerchant to access the promotional system.

As used herein, the term “client device identifier” refers to one ormore data objects by which a client device is uniquely identified. Forexample, a client identifier may comprise ASCII text, a pointer, amemory address, a “tracking” cookie for a browser operated device, anative device identifier, a hardware/device serial number, or acombination thereof.

As used herein, the terms “provider” and “merchant” are usedinterchangeably and include, but are not limited to, a business owner,consigner, shopkeeper, tradesperson, vendor, operator, entrepreneur,agent, dealer, organization or the like that is in the business of aproviding a good, service or experience to a consumer, facilitating theprovision of a good, service or experience to a consumer or otherwiseoperating in the stream of commerce. The “provider” or “merchant” neednot actually market a product or service via the promotional system, assome merchants or providers may utilize the promotional system only forthe purpose of gathering marketing information, demographic information,or the like.

As used herein, the term “consumer” should be understood to refer to arecipient or a potential recipient of goods, services, promotions,media, or the like provided by the promotion and marketing service, amerchant, or both. In some embodiments, consumers are users who useclient devices to access the promotional system such as to view and,potentially, purchase promotions offered by merchants through thepromotional system. Consumers may include, without limitation,individuals, groups of individuals, corporations, other merchants, andthe like.

As used herein, the term “promotion” may include, but is not limited to,any type of offered, presented or otherwise indicated reward, discount,coupon, credit, deal, incentive, discount, media or the like that isindicative of a promotional value or the like that upon purchase oracceptance results in the issuance of an instrument that may be usedtoward at least a portion of the purchase of particular goods, servicesand/or experiences defined by the promotion. The parameters of apromotion are defined by promotion data. In some embodiments, thepromotion data may define an inventory amount indicating the number ofinstances of a promotion that is available for purchase and/or otherform of acceptance.

Promotions may have different values in different contexts. For example,a promotion may have a first value associated with the cost paid by aconsumer, referred to as an “accepted value.” When redeemed, thepromotion may be used to purchase a “promotional value” representing theretail price of the goods. The promotion may also have a “residualvalue.” reflecting the remaining value of the promotion afterexpiration. Although consumers may be primarily focused on the acceptedand promotional value of the promotion, a promotion may also haveadditional associated values. For example, a “cost value” may representthe cost to the merchant to offer the promotion via the promotion andmarketing service, where the promotion and marketing service receivesthe cost value for each promotion sold to a consumer. The promotion mayalso include a “return on investment” value, representing a quantifiedexpected return on investment to the merchant for each promotion sold.

For example, consider a promotion offered by the promotion and marketingservice for a $50 meal promotion for $25 at a particular restaurant. Inthis example, $25 would be the accepted value charged to the consumer.The consumer would then be able to redeem the promotion at therestaurant for $50 applied toward their meal check. This $50 would bethe promotional value of the promotion. If the consumer did not use thepromotion before expiration, the consumer might be able to obtain arefund of $22.50, representing a 10% fee to recoup transaction costs forthe merchant and/or promotion and marketing service. This $22.50 wouldbe the residual value of the promotion. If the promotion and marketingservice charged the merchant $3.00 to offer the promotion, the $3.00 feewould be the “cost value.” The “return on investment” value of thepromotion might be dynamically calculated by the promotion and marketingservice based on the expected repeat business generated by the marketingof the promotion, the particular location, the demographics of theconsumer, and the like. For example, the return on investment valuemight be $10.00, reflecting the long term additional profit expected bythe merchant as a result of bringing in a new customer through use of apromotion.

As used herein, the term “instrument” refers to the representation orembodiment of the terms of a promotion that may be used in a transactionfor at least a portion of a purchase, acquisition, procurement,consumption or the like of goods, services and/or experiences. In someembodiments, instruments are provided to consumers as a result of aconsumer purchase of a promotion, and the promotion may be redeemed viathe use of the instruments. Instruments may include, but are not limitedto, any type of physical token (e.g., magnetic strip cards or printedbarcodes), virtual account balance (e.g., a promotion being associatedwith a particular user account on a merchant website), secret code(e.g., a character string that can be entered on a merchant website orpoint-of-sale), tender, electronic certificate, medium of exchange,voucher, or the like which may be used in a transaction for at least aportion of the purchase, acquisition, procurement, consumption or thelike of goods, services and/or experiences as defined by the terms ofthe promotion.

In some examples, the instrument may take the form of tender that has agiven value that is exchangeable for goods, services and/or experiencesand/or a reduction in a purchase price of a particular good, service orexperience. In some examples, the instrument may have multiple values,such as accepted value, a promotional value and/or a residual value. Forexample, using the aforementioned restaurant as the example provider, anelectronic indication in a mobile application that shows $50 of value tobe used as payment for a meal check at the restaurant. In some examples,the accepted value of the instrument is defined by the value exchangedfor the instrument. In some examples, the promotional value is definedby the promotion from which the instrument resulted and is the value ofthe instrument beyond the accepted value. In some examples, the residualvalue is the value after redemption, the value after the expiry or otherviolation of a redemption parameter, the return or exchange value of theinstrument and/or the like.

As used herein, the term “redemption” refers to the use, exchange orother presentation of an instrument for at least a portion of a good,service or experience as defined by the instrument and its relatedpromotion. In some examples, redemption includes the verification ofvalidity of the instrument. In other example embodiments, redemption mayinclude an indication that a particular instrument has been redeemed andthus no longer retains an actual, promotional and/or residual value(e.g., full redemption). In other example embodiments, redemption mayinclude the redemption of at least a portion of its actual, promotionaland/or residual value (e.g., partial redemption). An example ofredemption, using the aforementioned restaurant as the example provider,is the exchange of the $50 instrument and $50 to settle a $100 mealcheck.

As used herein, the term “item” refers to various types of inventorythat may be offered by the promotional system. For example, an item mayinclude a promotion (e.g., specials, offers, etc.), coupon, market rategood (e.g., products, getaways, etc.), or other articles (e.g., giftcards, etc.). Items may be further defined by item parameters such asprice, category, a particular product, service, or experience, etc. Thepromotional system offers items by sending data to client devices. Thedata causes the client devices to render tiles or item views related tothe items offered by the promotional system and which provideinformation regarding the items and a means to purchase such items.

As used herein, the term “impression” refers to anelectronically-generated communication, originating from a promotionalsystem, that advertises an offer to purchase an item. For example, animpression comprises a communication, a display, or other perceivedindication, such as a rectangular graphic, icon, tile, thumbnail, objectincluded as part of a plurality of objects presented in rows andcolumns, flyer, print media, e-mail, text message, application alert,mobile applications, or other type of electronic interface ordistribution channel and/or the like, of one or more promotions. Anexample of an impression, using the aforementioned restaurant as theexample provider, is an e-mail communication sent to consumers thatindicates the availability of a $25 for $50 toward a meal at theparticular restaurant.

As used herein, the term “tile” refers to a data object or container fordata, or an electronically-generated communication, that can be includedwithin an interface. A tile is a specific type of impression. Forexample, a tile includes item data defining a promotion, category,collection, special, coupon, article/good (e.g., product, service, orexperience), sale, etc. In some embodiments, a tile additionallyincludes presentation data such as images, videos, meta data, formatdata, layout data, etc. In some embodiments, a tile represents an areaon a display or interface. A tile can represent a single item, ormultiple items (e.g., a promotion and a collection offered together, anarticle and a video advertisement or informational presentation, etc.).The promotional system uses tiles to populate interfaces. In oneembodiment, the promotional system sends to consumer devices interfacedata configured to cause the consumer devices to render different tilelayouts associated with users that are in turn associated with differentclusters of user behavior. In some embodiments, tiles may be rankedbased on their relevance to a consumer, and then presented in a mannerthat is optimized or suitable for the particular type of consumer device(e.g., mobile or desktop) that the consumer is using to access thepromotion and marketing service.

As used herein, the term “platform session” refers to an instance or aperiod of user activity associated with a website or a mobileapplication. For example, in one embodiment, a platform session beginswhen a client device sends data to a promotional system indicating thata user is requesting access to a website or mobile applicationassociated with the promotional system. Conversely, a platform sessionends when the user leaves the website, quits the mobile application,becomes idle (e.g., provides no user inputs for a pre-determined periodof time), or purchases an item offered by the promotional system. Aplatform session is associated with and identified via a sessionidentifier.

As used herein, the term “session records” refers to a plurality of dataobjects associated with a platform session and which are stored in adata repository such as a database. The session records include, atleast, records of user inputs data collected during a platform session.The records comprise electronic information indicating content viewed,accessed, edited, or retrieved by a user during a session as well aswhether a user executed a transaction during the platform session. Theinformation or records are electronically processed and analyzed by apromotional system to cluster user behavior. For example, the sessionrecords include data associated with various types of user interactions,including without limitation, data associated with mouse clicks, dataassociated with mouse-over events such as data generated as a result ofa mouse-over event or as a result of a mouse-over event occurring for apredetermined duration, the amount of time spent by the consumer viewingcontent during a session, data generated as a result of a user accessingor clicking a tile to access detailed information associated with anitem, the rate at which impressions of particular content result insales associated with that content, demographic information associatedwith each particular consumer, data indicating other content accessed bythe consumer (e.g., browser cookie data), the time or date on whichcontent was accessed, the frequency of impressions for particularcontent, data generated as a result of a user scrolling through content,data generated as a result of idle time, and/or the like. Sessionrecords may also include implicit data derived from any of theaforementioned data.

In at least one embodiment, the session records include data objectssuch as a session identifier, a user account identifier (associating theplatform session to a user account), first-level platform engagementcount, platform query count, second-level platform engagement count,platform output status indicator, and a session length. In someembodiments, the session records are stored as a row, a “session recordsrow,” in a sessions data table. Additional data may be appended tosession records rows to store or associate additional informationpertaining to a platform session.

As used herein, the term “sessions data” refers to a plurality of dataobjects associated with a plurality of platform sessions and which arestored in a data repository such as a database. In some embodiments, thesessions data is stored in a sessions data table comprising a pluralityof rows and columns. In this embodiment, the plurality of rows comprisea plurality of session records rows.

As used herein, the term “session identifier” refers to one or more dataobjects by which a session may be uniquely identified. For example, asession identifier may comprise ASCII (American Standard Code forInformation Exchange) text, a pointer, a memory address, and the like.In one embodiment, a promotional system generates a session identifierconfigured to capture, identify, or embody information such as one ormore of a client device identifier, a client device version number, dataindicative of a period of latest consumer activity, and/or one or moretimestamps (e.g., time of creation, login, logout, or the like).

In some embodiments, a promotional system is configured to determinewhen to close a session. For example, as a consumer continues tonavigate a website or mobile application, a host system captures userinput data associated with consumer activity and continues to do so forthe period of consumer activity. A “session timestamp”, which is a dataentity that is, in some embodiments, included in a session identifierfor indicating a time of last consumer activity, may be updated at eachinstance of consumer activity as indicated by the user input data.However, when, for example, a consumer stops navigating the website ormobile application (such as for a pre-determined amount of time), thepromotional system determines that there is no consumer activity due tothe absence of user input. If a consumer returns to access a website ormobile application, the promotional system then determines, based onlooking at the session timestamp, whether the consumer has returnedwithin a period identified by a predetermined “session time” (e.g., 30minutes).

A “session time” may be a predetermined time of inactivity in which thehost system may determine that subsequent user input is part of theoriginally identified platform session. Here, for example, if thepromotional system determines that the subsequent user input is withinthe session time, the promotional system determines that the activityassociated with the user input is part of the originally identifiedplatform session and that platform session may not be closed. However,if the user returns to access the website or open the mobile applicationafter the time period identified by the predetermined session time, thepromotional system may determine that the activity associated with theuser is part of a subsequent platform session. In some embodiments, anew platform session is generated and the previous session is closed. Insome embodiments, a predetermined session time may be one factor in aprobabilistic determination of session identification. For example, inaddition to utilizing session time, a promotional system may captureinformation related to session identification. Then, based on whichinformation is captured and when the information is captured, thepromotional system may determine whether to identify the information ina current session or start a new session, in some embodiments, thepromotional system may be configured to factor associated confidencelevels associated with the captured information into a probabilisticdetermination of whether the information should be identified as part ofthe current session or whether a new session should be created.

As used herein, the term “interactive promotional interface” refers to awindow or modal or dedicated interface component that is rendered to auser of a client device and is configured to enable the user to accesscontent such as information about promotions and other items offered bythe promotional system. The interactive promotional interface presentsto the user a plurality of tiles or impressions. Additionally, theinteractive promotional interface enables user inputs such as searchqueries for items offered by the promotional system or user selectionsof specific tiles that in turn cause the rendering of an item view onthe client device. The interactive promotional interface is presented ona display screen of a client device such as a consumer device. In someembodiments, user inputs received by the interactive promotionalinterface cause the client device to send user input data to a server ofthe promotional system. The functions described in this definition areexample and should not be considered limiting of the interactivepromotional interface. A person having ordinary skill would understandthat the interactive user interface enables other types of user inputsand other functionalities in accordance with the rest of the disclosureprovided herein.

In one embodiment, the interactive promotional interface may beconfigured differently depending on parameters associated with a useraccount. For example, if user of a client device is associated with afirst user account that, in turn, is associated with a first clusteridentifier, then the interactive promotional interface rendered to theuser may have a first configuration. In one embodiment, the firstconfiguration may comprise, for example, three tiles. On the other hand,if a user of a client device is associated with a second user accountthat, in turn, is associated with a second cluster identifier, then theinteractive promotional interface rendered to the user may have a secondconfiguration. In one embodiment, the second configuration may comprise,for example, eight tiles. Thus, in short, the interactive promotionalinterface may take different configurations according to the clusteridentifier associated with the user account corresponding to a user of aclient device.

As used herein, the term “query input component” refers to an objectrendered via an interactive promotional interface which enables userinputs that result in a search query. In one embodiment, the query inputcomponent accepts input in the form of a string or a sequence ofcharacter values. In one embodiment, submitting a user input via thequery input component causes a client device to send, to a server of thepromotional system, search query data. In response to receiving thesearch query data, the server of the promotional system rinds contentmatching the user input (such as data comprising tiles of item viewscontaining approximate or exact matches of the user input).Subsequently, the serve of the promotional system may send datacomprising the search results to the client device, which utilizes thenewly received data to render content for the user via the interactivepromotional interface.

As used herein, the term “item view” comprises a tab or window or modalor an instance of a dedicated interface component that is rendered to auser of a client device via an interactive promotional interface. Anitem view comprises viewable information regarding an item offered viathe promotional system such as a promotion, category, category,collection, special coupon, article/good (e.g., product, service, orexperience), sale, etc. In some embodiments, an item view is renderedafter a user selects, such as by clicking, tapping, or submittingkeyboard inputs, a specific tile. Even though some of the informationprovided by a tile and an item view may overlap, an item view isconfigured to provide additional details not available in a tile. Forexample, an item view may provide means for viewing multiple images andvideos regarding an item, ratings provided by other users of thepromotional system, details regarding what is included with the itemoffered, details regarding a location or locations for redemption of apromotion, a price and quantity, consumer reviews, the time remaining onthe offer (and thus the time remaining on the item's availability), andthe like. In addition, in some embodiments, an item view includes anactuator button that enables a user to initiate a transaction forpurchasing an item.

As used herein, the term “first-level platform engagement count” refersto a data object storing information that tracks the frequency withwhich users are provided with tiles or impressions during a platformsession. For example, during a given platform session, a user of aclient device may select and drag a scrolling component provided by aninteractive promotional interface. In response, the interactivepromotional interface is configured to cause a client device to renderadditional tiles for the user. In this scenario, the promotional systemtracks the additionally rendered tiles via the first-level platformengagement count such that, at the end of the platform session, thefirst-level platform engagement count reflects the total number of tilesrendered for a user during the platform session. A person of ordinaryskill in the art would recognize that other types of user inputs andother techniques exist to cause additional tiles to be rendered to auser, and the first-level platform engagement count is configured totrack such additionally rendered tiles.

As used herein, the term “intermediate first-level platform engagementcount” refers to a data object derived from a first-level platformengagement count. For example, in one embodiment, the intermediatefirst-level platform engagement count is determined by attenuating afirst-level platform engagement count. In some embodiments, the sameattenuation factor (otherwise referred to herein as a first-levelplatform engagement normalization factor) is applied to all first-levelplatform engagement counts stored in a data repository to obtain theintermediate first-level platform engagement counts. The intermediatefirst-level platform engagement count is utilized by a promotionalsystem to produce a transformed first-level platform engagement count.

As used herein, the term “second-level platform engagement count” refersto a data object storing information that tracks the frequency withwhich users access item views during a platform session. For example,during a given platform session, a user of a client device may select atile such as by clicking, tapping (on a touchscreen), or providingkeyboard inputs. Selecting a tile causes a client device to render anitem view corresponding to the selected tile, where the item viewcomprises additional information regarding an offered item. Thepromotional system is configured to track the number of times that auser provides user inputs to access item views such that by the end of aplatform session, the second-level engagement platform session countreflects the total number of item views accessed by a user during theplatform session.

As used herein, the term “platform query count” refers to a data objectstoring information that tracks the frequency with which users submituser inputs comprising search queries during a platform session. Forexample, during a given platform session, a user of a client device maysubmit input in the form of a string or a sequence of character valuesvia a query input component. In some embodiments, the query inputcomponent is presented on an interactive promotional interface. Thepromotional system is configured to track the number of times that auser provides user inputs in the form of search queries such that by theend of a platform session, the platform query count reflects the totalnumber of search queries submitted by a user during the platformsession.

As used herein, the term “platform output status indicator” refers to adata object storing information that tracks whether a user input orseries of user inputs caused a promotional system to output certaindata. For example, during a given platform session, a user of a clientdevice may initiate, via a series of user inputs, a transaction topurchase an item offered by the promotional system via tiles and itemviews. In some embodiments, an interactive promotional interfacepresents an actuator button that facilitates user purchase of an item.In this embodiment, the promotional system is configured to track, via aplatform output status indicator, whether a user purchases an itemduring a platform session. In one embodiment, the platform output statusindicator is a flag or Boolean variable taking two or more values, suchas a 0 and a 1, which indicates at least the two possible states.

As used herein, the term “center of mass” refers to the average positionof a plurality of points. For example, in one embodiment, a promotionalsystem is configured to determine the center of mass of a cluster. To doso, the promotional system determines the average position of aplurality of platform sessions in a three-dimensional space. Theplatform sessions are, in this embodiment, associated with the clusterfor which the promotional system is to determine a center of mass. Inthis embodiment, each platform session is represented in thethree-dimensional space via session coordinates data comprising threevalues (or coordinates). In at least one embodiment, the coordinatesdata comprises transformed versions of the first-level platformengagement count, platform query count, and second-level platformengagement counts associated with a session identifier.

As used herein, the term “centroid” refers to a center of mass. In someembodiments disclosed herein, a centroid is associated with a clusterand comprises a representation of the cluster in a three-dimensionalspace. For example, in one embodiment, the centroid coordinates dataassociated with a cluster identifier define the centroid's position inthe three-dimensional space.

As used herein, the term “centroid coordinates data” refers to a dataobject or data objects storing information related to a cluster. To thatend, the centroid coordinates data is associated in a data repository toa cluster identifier. In one embodiment, the information stored by thecentroid coordinates data comprises three values that a promotionalsystem may utilize to represent a cluster in in a three-dimensional. Thecentroid coordinates data is used to associate a plurality of platformsessions to a cluster identifier.

As used herein, the term “cluster identifier” refers to a data to one ormore data objects by which a cluster is uniquely referenced in apromotional system. For example, a cluster identifier may comprise ASCIItext, a pointer, a memory address, or the like. In one embodiment, acluster identifier is associated with centroid coordinates data whichdefine a location of a cluster in a three-dimensional space.

As used herein, the term “discretionary data” refers to electronicinformation is received by a promotional system that comprisesinformation voluntarily and explicitly provided by a user to thepromotional system in support of improved interaction with thepromotional system. Upon registering with the promotion and marketingservice or at any time thereafter, the consumer or merchant may beinvited to provide information that aids the promotional system inproviding content that is targeted to the particular needs of the user.For example, a consumer may indicate interests, hobbies, their age,gender, or location when creating a new account. A merchant may indicatethe type of goods or services provided, their retail storefrontlocation, contact information, hours of operation, or the like.

It should be appreciated that the discretionary data is intended torefer to data received by a promotional system that comprisesinformation voluntarily provided by a user. For example, a client devicemay send discretionary data to a server of the promotional system when auser completes a form or survey on a website or application hosted bythe promotional system. However, it should be appreciated that theexamples of discretionary data provided above may also be determinedimplicitly or through review or analysis of other electronic marketinginformation provided to the promotional system. In one embodiment, auser of a consumer device may be asked to provide information relatingto their interests or location during a registration process. Once theuser provides this information to the consumer device, the consumerdevice then sends the discretionary data to a server of the promotionalsystem for processing and storing such as in relation to a user account.

As used herein, a “homepage” refers to a landing page, a first screen,homepage default interface, or the like that is rendered to a user of aconsumer device when the user first accesses content through thepromotional system. The promotional system may generate the interactivepromotional interface data configured to cause the consumer device torender the homepage at least partially based on platform session recordsand a cluster identifier. For example, in some embodiments, thepromotional system may be configured to provide different homepages thatare optimized for a user based on the cluster identifier that isassociated with the user's user account. Further, and to provide furthercontext, the association between the cluster identifier and the useraccount may be at least partially based on platform session recordsassociated with the user account and centroid coordinates dataassociated with the cluster identifier.

Overview

Various embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to amethod and apparatus for clustering platform sessions and user accountsassociated with the platform sessions. The method and apparatus collectuser inputs and other data from a platform session and store the data ina database. Because the stored platform sessions data comprises userinputs and data at least related to such user inputs, the platformsessions store data that provides insights into user behavior. Thus, thevarious embodiments of the present disclosure provide for a method andapparatus that identifies clusters of user behavior during platformsessions.

To that end, the apparatus collects data regarding the number of tilespresented to a user, search queries submitted by the user, and itemviews presented to a user during a platform session. Additionally, theapparatus may track the length of the platform session and whether theuser purchases an item during the session. The apparatus optionallytracks other data during a platform session, such as whether a user hasbeen idle. For example, if a user is idle for a pre-determined period oftime, the platform session ends. Subsequently, if a user becomes activeagain (e.g., by submitting additional user inputs into the system), theapparatus initiates a new platform session for recording user inputs.

In this manner, by collecting a plurality of data during each platformsession, the method and apparatus provide a database that is populatedwith many session records corresponding to the many platform sessions.Various embodiments of the present disclosure disclose a method andapparatus that utilizes these records to provide for a more efficientsystem and network.

For example, the disclosed apparatus, through various datatransformations, transforms the collected session records into usabledata for clustering platform sessions. Through applied effort andingenuity, the data transformations utilize an attenuation factor toattenuate the number of tiles presented during each session.Subsequently, the apparatus transforms the attenuated number of tilespresented, the number of search queries submitted and the number of itemviews presented during each platform session to provide transformed datathat can be used to map and cluster the session records data. In thismanner, the present disclosure provides transformed data that can beused to map the platform sessions onto a three-dimensional space. There,each point in the three-dimensional space represents one platformsession.

The apparatus may subsequently employ a clustering method foridentifying clusters of platform sessions based on the transformedsession records. There, the apparatus initializes data that defines theclusters to be identified and subsequently assigns a randomized initialposition to each cluster in the three-dimensional space. The apparatusthen finds, for each platform session, the nearest cluster to theplatform session's position in the three-dimensional space. Thus, theapparatus associates each of the platform sessions to its nearestcluster. A consequence is that each cluster becomes associated with manyplatform sessions, each of which has a different location in thethree-dimensional space.

Continuing with the clustering method, the apparatus is then configuredto find, for each cluster, the average position of all platform sessionsassociated with the cluster. In one embodiment, the apparatusaccomplishes this by determining the centers of mass corresponding toall the platform sessions associated with each of the clusters. Thus,the apparatus finds one center of mass per cluster, and subsequentlymodifies the position of each cluster in the three-dimensional space tomatch the center of mass calculated for the respective cluster.

The apparatus iteratively repeats the steps of (1) finding the nearestcluster for each platform session and then (2) assigning the position ofeach cluster to match the center of mass calculated for the cluster. Theapparatus repeats such steps until the positions of all the clusters inthe three-dimensional space remain unchanged. When the cluster positionsbecome constant between successive iterations, then the apparatus hasidentified the clusters of platform sessions. In other words, theapparatus thus identifies clusters of user behavior based on datacollected during many platform sessions.

The method and apparatus may be utilized for various purposes. Forexample, in one embodiment, the method and apparatus are used to segmentthe results of A/B experiments based on the identified clusters. Thisallows for A/B experiments that provide greater insight than could beaccomplished without the aid of the identified clusters.

Similarly, the method and apparatus, in another embodiment, may providefor an improved method of providing interactive interfaces to users of apromotional system. For example, a promotional system may provide oneinterface configuration to users associated with one cluster (e.g.,users who generally exhibit one type of user behavior) and may provide adifferent interface configuration to users associated with a secondcluster. To provide additional context, in one embodiment, the apparatusmay provide to a first user a first configuration of an interface thatpresents eight tiles in a single screen. This is advantageous when thefirst user is associated with a user account reflecting user behaviorassociated with a large number of tile views before effectuating apurchase.

On the other hand, in this same embodiment, the apparatus may provide toa second user a second configuration of the interface that presentsthree tiles in a single screen. This is advantageous when the seconduser is associated with a user account reflecting user behaviorassociated with a low number of tile views and, perhaps, a large numberof search queries.

In this manner, the present disclosure provides for a promotional systemthat more effectively utilizes its resources, such as by sending largequantities of tiles data only to those users who effectively use thelarge amounts of tiles data and by configuring interfaces so thatconsumers more effectively utilize the features provided by theinterface. Because the clustering of platform sessions allows for theutilization of resources that is targeted and more efficiently providedto users of the system, the present disclosure allows for animplementation of a promotional system that has reduced infrastructurerequirements. For example, the processing load on the server of thepromotional system is reduced as a result of the reduced amount of dataneeded to be generated, processed, manipulated, and transferred toclient devices. Further, because the transmission of data is moreefficiently targeted for transmission to those consumer devices thatutilize the data effectively, the amount of data sent via a data networkcan be reduced, which results in a reduction of the data load imposed onthe data network. Thus, as a consequence of the present disclosure, datanetworks may support communications between more systems while keepingthe same digital bandwidth.

Among other features, these and other embodiments described herein atleast: reflect improvements in the functioning of computing systems ordevices, such as promotion and marketing services (including but notlimited to promotional systems, servers, and databases), server devices,client devices, and combinations thereof; reflect improvements to othertechnologies or technical fields as described herein; and effecttransformations or reductions of particular articles to different statesor things, such as platform session records, other articles describedherein, and combinations thereof. In addition, the embodiments describedherein provide for improved networked systems that reduce the amount ofdata transferred via the network and allow for more efficient systemsthat have reduced infrastructure requirements and improved performance.

System Architecture and Example Apparatus

Methods, apparatuses, and computer program products of the presentdisclosure may be embodied by any of a variety of devices. For example,the method, apparatus, and computer program product of an exampleembodiment may be embodied by a networked device, such as a server orother network entity, configured to communicate with one or moredevices, such as one or more client devices. Additionally oralternatively, the computing device may include fixed computing devices,such as a personal computer or a computer workstation. Still further,example embodiments may be embodied by any of a variety of mobileterminals, such as a portable digital assistant (PDA), mobile telephone,smartphone, laptop computer, tablet computer, wearable device (e.g.,smart glasses, smart watch, virtual reality headset, etc.) or anycombination of the aforementioned device.

In this regard, FIG. 1 shows an example computing system within whichembodiments of the present disclosure may operate. Consumers andmerchants may access a promotion and marketing service from apromotional system 102 via a network 112 (e.g., the Internet, or thelike) using consumer devices 108A through 108N and merchant devices 110Athrough 110N, respectively (e.g., one or more consumer devices 108A-108Nor one or more merchant devices 110A-110N). Moreover, the promotionalsystem 102 may comprise a promotional server 104 and a promotionaldatabase 106.

The promotional server 104 may be embodied as a single computer ormultiple computers. The promotional server 104 may be configured toprovide the promotion and marketing service. For example, thepromotional server 104 may provide for receiving of electronic data fromvarious sources, including but not necessarily limited to the consumerdevices 108A-108N and the merchant devices 110A-110N. The promotionalserver 104 may be operable to receive and process user inputs providedby the consumer devices 108 and/or the merchant devices 110. Thepromotional server 104 may also facilitate e-commerce transactions basedon transaction information provided by the consumer devices 108 and/orthe merchant devices 110. The promotional server 104 may facilitate thegeneration and providing of various electronically-generatedcommunications and/or electronic user interfaces based on the receivedelectronic data (e.g., electronic marketing data, etc.). Although asingle promotional server 104 is shown, promotional system 102 mayinclude one or more promotional servers 104. In some embodiments, one ormore promotional servers 104 may include a session management circuitry210, clustering circuitry 212, and/or an optional A/B testing circuitry214 as shown in FIG. 2 .

Returning to FIG. 1 , promotional database 106 may be embodied as a datastorage device such as a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device ordevices, or as a separate database server or servers. The promotionaldatabase 106 includes information accessed and stored by the promotionalserver 104 to facilitate the operations of the promotional system 102.For example, the promotional database 106 may include, withoutlimitation, electronic marketing information, user account credentialsfor system administrators, merchants, and consumers, item dataindicating items (e.g., promotions, market rate goods, coupons,articles, etc.) offered by the promotion and marketing service, consumeraccount and/or other consumer data, clickstream data, analytic results,reports, financial data, and/or the like. In some embodiments,promotional database 106 may represent one or more databases storingsome or all of the data discussed herein.

The consumer devices 108A-108N may be embodied by one or more computingdevices and, in some instances, may be embodied as one or morespecialized circuitries, computers, or computing systems configured toperform various functions described herein. Each of the consumer devices108A-108N may be operated by, or associated with, a consumer. Electronicdata received by the promotional server 104 from the consumer devices108A-108N may be provided in various forms and via various methods. Forexample, the consumer devices 108A-108N may include desktop computers,laptop computers, smartphones, netbooks, tablet computers, wearables,and the like. The electronic data may be provided through varioussources on these consumer devices.

In embodiments where a consumer device 108 is a mobile device, such as asmart phone or tablet, the consumer device 108 may execute an “app” tointeract with the promotional system 102. Such apps are typicallydesigned to execute on mobile devices, such as tablets or smartphones.For example, an app may be provided that executes on mobile deviceoperating systems such as Apple Inc.'s iOS®, Google Inc.'s Android®, orMicrosoft inc.'s Windows 8®. These platforms typically provideframeworks that allow apps to communicate with one another and withparticular hardware and software components of mobile devices. Forexample, the mobile operating systems named above each provideframeworks for interacting with location services circuitry, wired andwireless network interfaces, user contacts, and other applications in amanner that allows for improved interactions between apps while alsopreserving the privacy and security of consumers. In some embodiments, amobile operating system may also provide for improved communicationinterfaces for interacting with external devices (e.g., home automationsystems, indoor navigation systems, and the like). Communication withhardware and software modules executing outside of the app is typicallyprovided via application programming interfaces (APIs) provided by themobile device operating system.

The promotional system 102 may leverage the application frameworkoffered by the mobile operating system to allow consumers to designatewhich information is provided to the app and which may then be providedto the promotional system 102. In some embodiments, consumers may “optin” to provide particular data to the promotional system 102 in exchangefor a benefit, such as improved relevancy of marketing communicationsoffered to the user. In some embodiments, the consumer may be providedwith privacy information and other terms and conditions related to theinformation provided to the promotional system 102 during installationor use of the app. Once the consumer provides access to a particularfeature of the mobile device, information derived from that feature maybe provided to the promotional system 102 to improve the quality of theconsumer's interactions with the promotion and marketing service.

For example, the consumer may indicate that they wish to providelocation information to the app from location services circuitryincluded in their mobile device. Providing this information to thepromotional system 102 may enable the promotional system 102 to offerpromotions to the consumer that are relevant to the particular locationof the consumer (e.g., by providing promotions for merchants proximateto the consumer's current location). It should be appreciated that thevarious mobile device operating systems may provide the ability toregulate the information provided to the app associated with thepromotional system 102. For example, the consumer may decide at a laterpoint to disable the ability of the app to access the location servicescircuitry, thus limiting the access of the consumer's locationinformation to the promotional system 102.

Various other types of information may also be provided in conjunctionwith an app executing on the consumer's mobile device. For example, ifthe mobile device includes a social networking feature, the consumer mayenable the app to provide updates to the consumer's social network tonotify friends of a particularly interesting promotion. It should beappreciated that the use of mobile technology and associated appframeworks may provide for particularly unique and beneficial uses ofthe promotion and marketing service through leveraging the functionalityoffered by the various mobile operating systems.

Additionally or alternatively, the consumer device 108 may interactthrough the promotional system 102 via a web browser. As yet anotherexample, the consumer device 108 may include various hardware orfirmware designed to interface with the promotional system 102 (e.g.,where the consumer device 108 is a purpose-built device offered for theprimary purpose of communicating with the promotional system 102, suchas a store kiosk).

The consumer device 108 may be configured to execute a mobileapplication including multiple service applications. Each serviceapplication may be configured to execute in a separate “container,”including a unique thread and execution context. As such, the mobileapplication provides multi-threading performance on a mobile device. Themobile application may be defined with respect to a dependency tree. Thedependency tree is a data structure that defines startup and shutdowndependencies among the service applications of the mobile application.When a particular service application is needed, the consumer device 108may be configured to determine one or more parent service applicationsof the service application from the dependency tree, and startup eachparent service application (e.g., that is not already started) in anorder defined by the dependency tree. Similarly, when a particularservice application is not needed and thus can be shutdown (e.g., topreserve computing resources), the service application as well as one ormore parent service applications that are no longer be used (e.g., as adependency) may also be shut down in an order defined by the dependencytree. Within each service, the code may be single-threaded, which makesfor easily understandable and maintainable code. For the mobileapplication as a whole, each service application runs using its own(e.g., JavaScript) core and its own thread to create a multi-threadednetwork of service applications executing on the consumer device 108.

In some embodiments, the mobile application may be a mobile consumerapplication configured to interface with the promotional system 102.Here, each service application may be associated with a particularfunctionality, such as the generation of a particular application pageof the mobile consumer application. For example, a first serviceapplication may be configured to provide a homepage, a second serviceapplication may be configured to provide a promotion detail page, athird service application may be configured to provide a redemptioninformation page, and so forth. The various pages may include links orreferences to each other, which may be used a basis for the defineddependencies within the dependency tree. For example, the homepageprovided by a first service application executing in a first thread mayinclude links to one or more promotions. In response to selection of alink of a promotion, a promotion detail page for the promotion may begenerated by a second service application (e.g., a promotion detail pageservice application) executing in a second thread, and provided to auser interface of the consumer device 108. As such, execution of thefirst service application may require startup of the second serviceapplication dependency.

The service applications may be configured to utilize a serviceorientated architecture (SOA) or microservices architecture pattern. Theservice applications may be configured to facilitate messaging, startup,shutdown, and coordination among each other. The services applicationsmay operate like servers that wait in a listening state, and interactand trigger executions through RESTful contracts. In accordance with theSOA design, the service applications may include the followingproperties: (1) explicit functional boundaries, (2) autonomous servicesthat do not access the memory space, dependencies, etc., (3) serviceapplications share schema and contract, not class, and (4) servicecompatibility is based on policy.

For example, a first service application may generate and send a requestto execute a second service application, which initiates the executionof the second service application. Furthermore, any service applicationdependencies of the second service application that have not beenstarted may be started prior to execution of the second serviceapplication. In the context of a consumer mobile application, a serviceapplication may be dedicated to generating a promotion detail pagewithin the user interface. Here, when the promotion detail page is to bedisplayed within the user interface, a call can be made to a promotiondetail page service to display the promotion detail page, and therequired information (e.g., a promotion identifier) may be passed to theservice application as part of the call.

A particular service application may also be requested in ways otherthan another service action, such as by an external application ordevice. For example, the consumer device 108 may be configured todetermine to execute a service application (e.g., a promotion detailpage of a promotion) in response to user selection of a link, button, orreference (e.g., associated with the promotion) in an electronicmarketing communication (e.g., email, text message, application message,mobile push alert, etc.) provided to the consumer device 108 from thepromotional system 102. Only the referenced service application andparent service application dependencies need to be started, while otherservice applications or portions of the mobile application may remain orbe shutdown. Once started, a similar call can be made to the promotiondetail page service application, including the promotion identifierassociated with the selected link, button or reference.

The different service applications may be developed separately, such asby different developers or teams. In some embodiments, serviceapplications may be coded with a standard mobile application code formatthat is supported across multiple mobile device operating systems. Forexample, the React Native framework may be used to allow developers tocode in JavaScript but produce native user interfaces on both iOS andAndroid mobile operating systems. In another example, an HTML5-basedframework or AngularJS may be used as the standard mobile applicationcode format. Native user interfaces allow for responsive, fluidapplications akin (e.g., from a user perspective) to applications codedin native mobile operating system code format or language.Advantageously, the mobile application may employ the standard mobileapplication code format within the service applications such that asignificant portion (e.g., 80-90%, in one example) of the serviceapplications share a codebase compatible with multiple mobile operatingsystems (e.g., iOS and Android). Thus duplications in mobile applicationdevelopment can be avoided. For example, rather than developing twoapplications having entirely different code base for iOS and Android,and thus resulting in slow release cycles with heavy verificationefforts for each version release, a single code base and verificationcan be performed for one or more service application using a standardmobile application code format. In some embodiments, serviceapplications configured to generate and provide an application page forthe user interface of the consumer device 108 may rely on React Nativeas the standard mobile application code format supported across multiplemobile device operating systems.

In some embodiments, at least two service applications of a mobileapplication may be coded using different programming code formats orlanguages. Because service applications execute in separate containersand interact using service calls (e.g., RESTful contracts) of definedoutputs and inputs, interoperability across programming languages ispossible within a single mobile application, such as even when internalprogramming (e.g., functions, sub-functions, user interface components,etc.) of a service application is modified or updated. Advantageously,distributed developers or development teams may work efficiently whileminimizing the introduction of incompatible code.

In some embodiments, a mobile application native codebase (e.g.,compatible with a single mobile OS) may be transformed from a monolithicarchitecture to a SOA. For example, a mobile application configured toprovide multiple application pages may be converted on a page-by-pagebasis where functionality associated with each application page isimplemented within a separate service application. Furthermore, eachservice application may be implemented using a standard mobileapplication code format, such as in JavaScript using React Native. Assuch, the service applications for each application page uses a standardmobile application code format. Native routing code may be added to themobile application to handle routing between native code and the serviceapplication pages seamlessly. For example, a “display” status parametermay be tracked and updated by the native routing code to control whichservice application, and associated page, is presented to the userinterface.

Subsequent to conversion from native to the standard mobile applicationcode format, A/B testing may be performed on application pages asmodified relative to the native pages. The A/B testing may be designedto evaluate areas such as user interaction (e.g., how frequently theuser interacts with the re-implemented page compared to the native page,whether a re-implemented page causes a user to purchase items at ahigher rate than the native page, whether sessions are longer are-implemented page compared to the native page, etc.), page performance(e.g., how fast the re-implemented page loads or reacts to user inputscompared to the native page), overall application performance (e.g., howfast the modified application boots up compared to the nativeapplication, memory usage-because high memory usage means the operatingsystem will reject the application from memory more often, leading tomore cold starts), developer experience (e.g., how easily development isusing these technologies compared with existing technologies), codesharing (e.g., how much code can or should most use service applicationsto achieve best performance), etc.

The merchant devices 110A-110N may be embodied by one or more computingdevices and, in some instances, may be embodied as one or morespecialized circuitries, computers, or computing systems configured toperform various functions described herein. Each of the merchant devices110A-110N may be operated by, or associated with, a merchant. Forexample, the merchant devices 110A-110N may include a merchantpoint-of-sale, a merchant e-commerce server, a merchant inventorysystem, or a computing device accessing a web site designed to providemerchant access (e.g., by accessing a web page via a browser using a setof merchant account credentials). Electronic data received by thepromotional system 102 from the merchant devices 110A-110N may also beprovided in various forms and via various methods. For example, themerchant devices 110A-110N may provide real-time transaction and/orinventory information as purchases are made from the merchant. In otherembodiments, the merchant devices 110A-110N may be employed to provideinformation to the promotional system 102 to enable the promotionalsystem 102 to generate promotions or other marketing information to beprovided to consumers.

Example Apparatuses for Implementing Various Embodiments

The promotional server 104, consumer device 108 and/or merchant device110 may be embodied by one or more computing systems, such as apparatus200 shown in FIG. 2 . As illustrated in FIG. 2 , the apparatus 200 mayinclude a processor 202, a memory 204, an input/output circuitry 206,communications circuitry 208, session management circuitry 210, andclustering circuitry 212, and optional A/B testing circuitry 214. Theapparatus 200 may be configured to execute the operations describedherein. Although these components 202-214 are described with respect tofunctional limitations, it should be understood that the particularimplementations necessarily include the use of particular hardware. Itshould also be understood that certain of these components 202-214 mayinclude similar or common hardware. For example, two sets of circuitrymay both leverage use of the same processor, network interface, storagemedium, or the like to perform their associated functions, such thatduplicate hardware is not required for each set of circuitry. The use ofthe term “circuitry” as used herein with respect to components of theapparatus should therefore be understood to include particular hardwareconfigured to perform the functions associated with the particularcircuitry as described herein.

The term “circuitry” should be understood broadly to include hardwareand, in some embodiments, software for configuring the hardware. Forexample, in some embodiments, “circuitry” may include processingcircuitry, storage media, network interfaces, input/output devices, andthe like. In some embodiments, other elements of the apparatus 200 mayprovide or supplement the functionality of particular circuitry. Forexample, the processor 202 may provide processing functionality, thememory 204 may provide storage functionality, the communicationscircuitry 208 may provide network interface functionality, and the like.

In some embodiments, the processor 202 (and/or co-processor or any otherprocessing circuitry assisting or otherwise associated with theprocessor) may be in communication with the memory 204 via a bus forpassing information among components of the apparatus 200. The memory204 may be non-transitory and may include, for example, one or morevolatile and/or non-volatile memories. In other words, for example, thememory may be an electronic storage device (e.g., a computer readablestorage medium). The memory 204 may be configured to store information,data, content, applications, instructions, or the like, for enabling theapparatus to carry out various functions in accordance with exampleembodiments of the present disclosure.

The processor 202 may be embodied in a number of different ways and may,for example, include one or more processing devices configured toperform independently. Additionally or alternatively, the processor mayinclude one or more processors configured in tandem via a bus to enableindependent execution of instructions, pipelining, and/ormultithreading. The use of the term “processing circuitry” may beunderstood to include a single core processor, a multi-core processor,multiple processors internal to the apparatus, and/or remote or “cloud”processors.

In an example embodiment, the processor 202 may be configured to executeinstructions stored in the memory 204 or otherwise accessible to theprocessor. Alternatively or additionally, the processor may beconfigured to execute hard-coded functionality. As such, whetherconfigured by hardware or software methods, or by a combination thereof,the processor may represent an entity (e.g., physically embodied incircuitry) capable of performing operations according to an embodimentof the present disclosure while configured accordingly. Alternatively,as another example, when the processor is embodied as an executor ofsoftware instructions, the instructions may specifically configure theprocessor to perform the algorithms and/or operations described hereinwhen the instructions are executed.

In some embodiments, the apparatus 200 may include input/outputcircuitry 206 that may, in turn, be in communication with processor 202to provide output to the user and, in some embodiments, to receive anindication of a user input. The input/output circuitry 206 may comprisea user interface and may include a display and may comprise a web userinterface, a mobile application, a client device, a kiosk, or the like.In some embodiments, the input/output circuitry 206 may also include akeyboard, a mouse, a joystick, a touch screen, touch areas, soft keys, amicrophone, a speaker, or other input/output mechanisms. The processorand/or user interface circuitry comprising the processor may beconfigured to control one or more functions of one or more userinterface elements through computer program instructions (e.g., softwareand/or firmware) stored on a memory accessible to the processor (e.g.,memory 204, and/or the like).

The communications circuitry 208 may be any means such as a device orcircuitry embodied in either hardware or a combination of hardware andsoftware that is configured to receive and/or transmit data from/to anetwork and/or any other device, circuitry, or module in communicationwith the apparatus 200. In this regard, the communications circuitry 208may include, for example, a network interface for enablingcommunications with a wired or wireless communication network. Forexample, the communications circuitry 208 may include one or morenetwork interface cards, antennae, buses, switches, routers, modems, andsupporting hardware and/or software, or any other device suitable forenabling communications via a network. Additionally or alternatively,the communication interface may include the circuitry for interactingwith the antenna(s) to cause transmission of signals via the antenna(s)or to handle receipt of signals received via the antenna(s).

The session management circuitry 210 includes hardware configured togenerate and provide data comprising electronically-generatedcommunications for the consumer devices. In some embodiments, thesession management circuitry 210 may be configured to provide thefunctionality discussed herein with respect to providing impressions,deal views, and associated interfaces to consumer devices. Additionally,the session management circuitry includes hardware configured togenerate session records indicating content viewed, accessed, edited, orretrieved by a user during a session as well as whether a user executeda transaction during said session.

The clustering circuitry 212 includes hardware configured to generateand provide clusters based on the session records. In some embodiments,the clustering circuitry 212 is configured to retrieve session recordsfrom memory 204 and to generate data comprising information regardingclusters of user behavior, which is data that is subsequently stored inmemory 204.

The optional A/B testing circuitry 214 includes hardware configured toenable users to generate A/B tests. For example, the A/B testingcircuitry 214 includes hardware configured to provide the functionalitydiscussed herein with respect to providing re-implemented pages thatdiffer from the native page. In at least one embodiment, the A/B testingcircuitry 214 may use the results of the clustering circuitry to enableuser selection of clusters of user behavior to generate the A/B tests.To that end, the clustering circuitry provides the functionality of amerchant interface that enables user-configuration of the A/B testing.

The session management circuitry 210, clustering circuitry 212, A/Btesting circuitry 214, or a combination thereof may utilize processingcircuitry, such as the processor 202, to perform the actions describedabove and further disclosed herein. However, it should also beappreciated that, in some embodiments, the session management circuitry210, clustering circuitry 212, A/B testing circuitry 214, or acombination thereof may include a separate processor, speciallyconfigured field programmable gate array (FPGA), or application specificinterface circuit (ASIC). The session management circuitry 210,clustering circuitry 212, A/B testing circuitry 214, or a combinationthereof may therefore be implemented using hardware components of theapparatus configured by either hardware or software for implementingthese planned functions.

As will be appreciated, any such computer program instructions and/orother type of code may be loaded onto a computer, processor or otherprogrammable apparatus's circuitry to produce a machine, such that thecomputer, processor other programmable circuitry that execute the codeon the machine create the means for implementing various functions,including those described herein.

It is also noted that all or some of the information presented by theexample displays discussed herein can be based on data that is received,generated and/or maintained by one or more components of apparatus 200.In some embodiments, one or more external systems (such as a remotecloud computing and/or data storage system) may also be leveraged toprovide at least some of the functionality discussed herein.

As described above and as will be appreciated based on this disclosure,embodiments of the present disclosure may be configured as methods,mobile devices, backend network devices, and the like. Accordingly,embodiments may comprise various means including entirely of hardware orany combination of software and hardware. Furthermore, embodiments maytake the form of a computer program product on at least onenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readableprogram instructions (e.g., computer software) embodied in the storagemedium. Any suitable computer-readable storage medium may be utilizedincluding non-transitory hard disks. CD-ROMs, flash memory, opticalstorage devices, or magnetic storage devices.

Overview of Clustering User Behavior Based on Platform

FIG. 3 shows a flow chart of an example method 300) for clustering userbehavior based on platform sessions. Method 3000 is meant to show a highlevel example, while some of the other processes flows discussed hereinshow more detailed examples.

At 3200, the promotional system is configured to collect and storesession records. To provide further context, a user may access thepromotional system 102 via various platforms such as via a webpage or anapp executing on a consumer device. In this manner, the consumer devicemay send and receive data to and from the promotional system 102.Further, the consumer device is configured to enable user interactionswith the promotional system via user inputs into the consumer device. Inone embodiment, the user interactions are provided to the consumerdevice via a rendered interactive promotional interface.

For example, in one embodiment, a user may access, utilizing a consumerdevice, a specific URL (Uniform Resource Locator) hosted by promotionalserver 104. Promotional server 104, in response to receiving an HTTP(Hypertext Transfer Protocol) request associated with the user inputcomprising an attempt to access the specific URL may send to theconsumer device interactive promotional interface data. The interactivepromotional interface data causes the consumer device to display aninteractive promotional interface, which is configured to provide apromotion and marketing service to the user. In some embodiments, theinteractive promotional interface comprises at least a plurality oftiles, a query input component and item views.

The promotional system is configured to track user behavior in the formof user inputs. To that end, the promotional system generates sessionrecords in the form of session records rows that are stored in a datarepository and that become associated with a platform session. Forexample, when promotional server 104 first receives the HTTP requestassociated with the user input comprising an attempt to access the URLwhere the promotion and marketing service is hosted, the promotionalserver 104 initiates a platform session. Promotional server 104, thusgenerates a session record row. In some embodiments, the session recordsrow comprises a user account identifier if one is available, a sessionidentifier, a timestamp associated with the user input indicating a timeof last user activity, a variety of user input counters, and the like.Further, after the promotional server 104 initiates the platformsession, the promotional server 104 begins collecting data associatedwith the platform session. A platform session ends, and the promotionalserver 104 terminates the collection of data associated with a platformidentifier, when a user completes a transaction to purchase an itemoffered via the promotion and marketing service. The platform sessionalso ends when a user closes the webpage providing the interactive userinterface or becomes idle (e.g., the promotional server 104 stopsreceiving user inputs) for a predetermined amount of time.

To provide further context regarding the data collection, promotionalserver 104 is configured to make a determination, based on theinteractive promotional interface data sent to the consumer device,regarding the number of tiles that a consumer device presents to a userduring a platform session. For each of the presented tiles, promotionalserver 104 increases a counter and stores it as part of the sessionrecords row. In one embodiment, the value is stored in a first-levelplatform interaction count, which is part of a session records row. Inone embodiment, a user input comprising a scrolling action associatedwith a user increases the first-level platform interaction count.

As another example, promotional server 104 is configured to make adetermination regarding the number of searches submitted by a user viathe interactive promotional interface. For example, in one embodiment,the interactive promotional interface provides a query input componentthat enables user input in the form of a string. In this embodiment,submitting a string via the query input component causes promotionalserver 104 to increase a counter that keeps track of the number of suchsearch queries occurring during a platform session. Thus, promotionalserver 104 tracks the number of search queries via a counter such as aplatform query count that forms part of a session records row.

Similarly, promotional server 104 is configured to keep track of thenumber of times that it receives a user input comprising a request toaccess an item view. For example, the interactive promotional interfaceenables users to select, for example by clicking (via a computer mouse)or tapping (via a touchscreen), a tile. Such user selection of a tilecauses the interactive promotional interface to then display an itemview associated with the selected tile. Thus, promotional server 104 isconfigured to track the number of times that a user accesses item viewsduring a platform session. Promotional server 104 may do so via asecond-level platform count that forms part of a session records row.

A person having ordinary skill in the art would appreciate thatpromotional server 104 may track other aspects of a platform session andgenerate a record of such aspect. For example, promotional server 104may be configured to track the duration of a platform session, dataassociated with mouse-over events such as data generated as a result ofa mouse-over event occurring over a tile, the rate at which impressionsof particular content result in sales associated with that content,demographic information associated with each particular consumer, dataindicating other content accessed by the consumer (e.g., browser cookiedata), the time or date on which content was accessed, the frequency ofimpressions for particular content, data generated as a result of a userscrolling through content, data generated as a result of idle time,and/or the like.

At 3300, the promotional system 102 generates session coordinates dataand optionally maps platform sessions in a three-dimensional space. Toprovide further context, promotional server 104 utilizes the sessionrecords rows generated at 3200 to generate transformed session recordsdata. Promotional server 104 may use the transformed session recordsdata to generate session coordinates data that represent locations of aplurality of platform sessions in a three-dimensional space.

To provide further context, in one embodiment, to generate sessioncoordinates data for a platform session, promotional server 104retrieves from a data repository the first-level platform interactioncount, platform query count, and second-level platform interaction countcorresponding to the platform session. Subsequently, promotional server104 transforms the retrieved data by employing various computations thattransform the retrieved data into useful values for a clusteringprocess. Promotional server 104 thus generates, based on the retrieveddata, session coordinates data that represents the platform session in athree-dimensional space. The data transformations may be necessary, insome embodiments, because promotional server 104 may initially store thesession records rows in a form that does not permit proper clustering ofuser behaviors.

Promotional server 104, after carrying out a series of transformationsteps, may map the session coordinates data in a three-dimensional spacethat contains the session coordinates data for all platform sessionsincluded in a data repository. Each set of session coordinates datarepresents one point in the three-dimensional space, and thus each pointrepresents one platform session and, consequently, its correspondinguser behavior as reflected by the user inputs recorded in the platformsession records row.

At 3400, promotional server 104 generates cluster-defining data.Promotional server 104 generates cluster-defining data based on themapping of platform sessions in the three dimensional space. Thus, thecluster-defining data depends on the plurality of points that representthe platform sessions in the three-dimensional space. To provide furthercontext, promotional server 104 first determines a number of clusters tobe identified. Subsequently, promotional server 104 may employ aclustering method to find clusters of user behavior as represented bythe plurality of points that represent platform sessions in thethree-dimensional space. The clusters comprise groups of points (orsession coordinates data) that are positioned close together. Thus, theclusters comprise groups of user behavior that are similar to eachother.

At 3500, promotional server 104 associates user accounts with clustersbased on session data (e.g., session coordinates data) and the clusterdata. As previously discussed, promotional server 104 is configured totrack user behavior in the form of user inputs and user interactionswith an interactive promotional interface. Promotional server 104 isthus configured to store session records associated with users byassociating the session records with a user account identifier. In thismanner, promotional server 104 may utilize the cluster data generated at3400 to associate a user account identifier with one of the identifiedclusters.

The promotional system 102 may use the association of user accounts withclusters for various purposes. For example, the promotional system 102may customize the interactive promotional interface for users based onthe cluster with which their user accounts are associated. Similarly,the promotional system 102 may generate A/B tests configured to evaluateuser interactions utilizing re-implemented interfaces that are targetedfor users associated with specific clusters.

Collecting Session Records and Generating Session Coordinates Data

FIG. 4 shows flow chart of an example method 4000 for generating sessioncoordinates data and optionally map platform sessions in athree-dimensional space.

At 4200, promotional server 104 accesses, from the data repository,sessions data associated with the platform sessions, where the sessionsdata comprises a plurality of session records, and each session recordcomprises a session identifier, a first-level platform engagement count,a second-level platform engagement count, a platform query count, andplatform output status indicator. The data repository may be embodied asa database such as promotional database 106 shown in FIG. 1 . Aspreviously discussed, promotional server 104 is configured to collectand store session records associated with a platform session. In oneembodiment the session records are stored as rows of a sessions datatable in the data repository. For example, FIG. 6 shows an examplesessions data table that is stored in a data repository such aspromotional database 106. With reference to FIG. 6 , a row comprisingsession records 608 includes a session identifier 601, user accountidentifier 602, first-level platform engagement count 603, platformquery count 604, second-level platform engagement count 605, platformoutput status indicator 606, and session length 607.

A session identifier is a data object that uniquely identifies aplatform session initiated by a user of a consumer device 108.Promotional server 104 is thus configured to collect and store in thesession records various data of interest regarding a platform session.In the particular embodiment of FIG. 6 , the session records 608includes a user account identifier that uniquely identifies a useraccount associated with a user of the promotional system 102. In oneembodiment, promotional server 104 associates a platform session with auser account identifier after a user of a consumer device 108 logs intothe promotional system. For example, in one embodiment, promotionalsystem 102 may send to the consumer device 108 log-in interface dataconfigured to cause the consumer device 108 to render a log-ininterface. Thus, the consumer device 108 enables a user to provide auser account name and a user account password, and/or other credentials,to authenticate the identity of the user. In this embodiment, after theuser provides to the promotional system the log-in information,promotional server 104 then generates a session records row like the rowcomprising session records 608, a platform session identifier like thesession identifier 601, and further includes the user account identifierassociated with the received log-in information and stores it as theuser account identifier 602. In addition, in one embodiment, promotionalserver 104 initializes row data objects 603-607. The initialization maycomprise assigning null values or zero values to each of the row dataobjects 603-607.

A first-level platform engagement count 603 is a data object thatidentifies the number of tiles rendered via a display of a consumerdevice 108. Promotional server 104 is thus configured to track thenumber of tiles presented via the interactive promotional interface fora user. For example, after a user logs into the promotional system,promotional server 104 sends to the consumer device 108 interactivepromotional interface data configured to cause the consumer device 108to render an interactive promotional interface. In one embodiment,immediately after the user provides log-in credentials, the interactivepromotional interface data is configured to cause the consumer device108 to render a homepage. FIG. 7 shows an example embodiment of ahomepage being displayed as part of an interactive promotionalinterface. In the specific embodiment of FIG. 7 , the consumer device108 is shown as displaying seven tiles 701-707. Thus, in this particularembodiment of a homepage, promotional server 104 would thus determinethat the platform session has been associated with seven tiles that havebeen rendered via a display of the consumer device 108. Consequently,promotional server 104 modifies the first-level platform engagementcount 603 to include a value representing that seven tiles have beenpresented during the platform session.

As the platform session continues beyond the initial homepage display,promotional server 104 is configured to update the first-level platformengagement count. For example, with reference to FIG. 7 , the user mayclick on scrolling component 708 and drag it downwards to viewadditional tiles included in the homepage. Promotional server 104consequently updates the first-level platform engagement count 603 toreflect the additional tiles that have been presented via the consumerdevice 108 during the platform session.

A platform query count 604 is a data object that identifies the numberof search queries that a user submits during a platform session. Forexample, with reference to FIG. 7 , a query input component 709 isprovided via the interactive promotional interface which enables a userto input as string or sequence of characters. In the embodiment shown inFIG. 7 , the user of a consumer device 108 may enter, for example, astring such as “oil change” into the query input component. After theuser submits the search query, such as by pressing a button on akeyboard (e.g., a return button on a keyboard) or otherwise activatingactuator button 710, the interactive promotional interface renders theresults of the search query. In such a scenario, promotional server 104updates the platform query count 604 to reflect that a search query hasbeen submitted during the platform session. If no previous searchqueries had been submitted, then promotional server 104 modifies theplatform query count 604 with a value that reflects that one searchquery has been submitted during the session. Subsequent search querieswould cause promotional server 104 to increase the platform query count604 accordingly.

For example, FIG. 8 shows one example embodiment of an interactivepromotional interface rendered via a consumer device 108 after a usersubmits a search query. In this embodiment, query input component 801shows that the string, “oil change,” was submitted by a user andtherefore received by promotional server 104. Further, this embodimentshows the consumer device 108 as rendering tiles 802-806 for the user.Accordingly, in this embodiment, subsequent to receiving the datacomprising the query input and subsequent to sending the interactivepromotional interface data configured to present tiles 802-806 via aconsumer device 108, promotional server 104 updates first-level platformengagement count 603 to reflect that an additional set of five tiles hasbeen rendered during the platform session.

A second-level platform engagement count 605 is a data object thatidentifies the number of times that a user accesses an item viewcomprising detailed information about an item being offered by thepromotional system. For example, with reference to the embodiment of theinteractive promotional interface shown in FIG. 8 , a user may select,via a mouse-click or a screen tap or a keyboard input, tile 805. Inresponse to such user input, consumer device 108 sends to promotionalserver 104 data comprising the user selection of tile 805. Promotionalserver 104 is thus configured to send, to consumer device 108,interactive promotional interface data configured to cause the consumerdevice 108 to render an item view.

For example, FIG. 9 shows an example embodiment of an interactivepromotional interface presenting an item view associated with tile 805.The item view includes details regarding the item offered. For example,FIG. 9 includes customer reviews, details regarding what the offerincludes, the number of such offers previously purchased by other users,the location for redemption, and the like. Promotional server 104, inaddition to sending interactive promotional interface data to theconsumer device 108, updates a second-level platform engagement count605 to reflect that the user has accessed an item view during theplatform session. As the user browses for more items through theinteractive promotional interface, subsequent user inputs comprisingrequests to access item views cause promotional server 104 toaccordingly update the second-level platform engagement count 605.

A platform output status indicator 606 is a data object that identifieswhether a user purchased an item during a platform session. In oneembodiment, platform output status indicator 606 is a Boolean variablethat can take one of two values: a one (or “true”) and a zero (or“false”). In some embodiments, platform output status indicator 606 isinitialized with a value of zero (or “false”). Subsequently, if a userpurchases an item during a platform session, promotional server 104modifies the platform output status indicator 606 into a 1 (or “true”).For example, with reference to the embodiment shown in FIG. 9 , a usermay activate actuator button 901, which initiates a transaction process.As part of the transaction process, the interactive promotionalinterface may ask a user to provide payment in exchange for receivingthe offered item. Further details of the transaction process are herebyomitted to avoid overcomplicating this disclosure. However, if the usercompletes the transaction process, promotional server 104 then updatesplatform output status indicator 606 to a 1 (or “true). Additionally,after the completion of the transaction, promotional server 104 ends theplatform session and determines the length of time of the platformsession. For example, in one embodiment, promotional server 104 may beconfigured to initiate a timer when the platform session is initiatedand then record the value of the timer when the platform session isterminated. Promotional server 104 stores the duration a platformsession in session length 607.

Returning to method 4000, at 4300, promotional server 104 retrieves,from the data repository and for each session record, the first-levelplatform engagement count to generate an intermediate first-levelplatform engagement count, the intermediate first-level platformengagement count being at least partially determined by dividing thefirst-level platform engagement count by a first-level platformengagement normalization factor (otherwise referred to herein as anattenuation factor), wherein the first-level platform engagementnormalization factor is common among all session records.

To provide further context, step 4300 comprises promotional server 104accessing a data repository such as one embodied by promotional database106 to retrieve data comprising information about the number of tilesthat a consumer device 108 rendered during a platform session (e.g., thestored first-level platform engagement count 603). Subsequently,promotional server 104 generates an intermediate first-level platformengagement count, which promotional server 104 generates by dividing thevalue stored in the first-level platform engagement count 603 stored. Tothat end, promotional server 104 uses a divisor configured to reduce thebias caused by or the undue weight of the first-level platformengagement count in a process for clustering user behavior.

To be more specific, in some embodiments of an interactive promotionalinterface, during any given session, the number of tiles presented to auser largely outnumbers the number of times that a user submits searchqueries and the number of times that a user accesses item views. Thus,clustering user behavior without attenuating the value of thefirst-level platform engagement count 603 would result in thefirst-level platform engagement count 603 becoming the determiningfactor when promotional server 104 performs the computations designed toidentify clusters of user behavior based on platform sessions data. Sucha result may be desirable in some embodiments such as when promotionalserver 104 is used to cluster user behavior based only on the number oftiles presented for a user during a session. A person having ordinaryskill in the art would recognize that such a result would also bedesirable in other embodiments where promotional server 104 is used tocluster user behavior based on user inputs that are expected to have asimilar order of magnitude as the expected number of tiles to bepresented to a user during a session.

However, in other embodiments, attenuating the effect of the first-levelplatform engagement counts, such as 603, becomes necessary. This isespecially true when the first-level platform engagement counts areorders of magnitude larger than other factors considered during theclustering process. For example, the table reproduced below provides onespecific example embodiment where attenuating a first-level platformengagement count is appropriate because the first-level platformengagement count (labeled “tile”) is one order of magnitude larger thanthe other factors:

item Session ID view search tile purchase0fdff1be-16c8-4053-a668-00669619c105 0 0 20 0107ec8ec-6a7e-4a85-a00b-edaae79c59c4 0 1 41 0109bedfd-0e9e-49a9-9781-bfc6685884e1 0 0 22 010dcbf92-e0bc-441e-8ed7-18f07c0eaf0e 6 0 21 01139f800-3a92-463e-9491-7d90edf865e7 2 7 12 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . .. .

In this embodiment, promotional server 104 is used to cluster userbehavior based on the first-level platform engagement counts 603,second-level platform engagement counts 605, and platform query counts604 that are associated with a plurality of rows comprising respectivesession records 608. In such an embodiment, to obtain a meaningful setof clusters of user behavior, promotional server 104 attenuates thefirst-level platform engagement counts 603. In some embodiments,promotional server 104 attenuates the first-level platform engagementcounts 603 by dividing each of the values stored in each of thefirst-level platform engagement counts 603 by a common divisor ornormalization factor (e.g., the same divisor is used across all of therespective session records 608). In one embodiment, the commonnormalization factor is a pre-determined value stored (such as 20) inthe data repository. However, in other embodiments, promotional server104 may determine the appropriate value of the normalization factor byanalyzing the sessions data and finding an optimized normalizationfactor.

At 4400, promotional server 104 then stores, in the data repository andfor each session record, the intermediate first-level platformengagement count and associates the intermediate first-level platformengagement count with a session identifier. In other words, promotionalserver 104 stores the intermediate first-level platform engagement countin the data repository. In some embodiments, promotional server 104stores the intermediate first-level platform engagement counts in anadditional column of the sessions data table so as to extend each rowcorresponding to a row comprising session records 608. In otherembodiments, promotional server 104 generates a new data structure thatassociates the intermediate first-level platform engagement count with asession identifier. Regardless of the storing method, at the end of step4400, the data repository, such as promotional database 106, stores anintermediate first-level platform engagement count for each of theplatform sessions, where the platform sessions and the new data areassociated with each other at least via a session identifier.

At 4500, promotional server 104 retrieves, from the data repository andfor each session record, the second-level platform engagement count, theplatform query count, and the intermediate first-level platformengagement count to generate transformed session records data.Promotional server 104 generates the transformed session records data bytransforming each of the retrieved data to obtain a transformedsecond-level platform engagement count, transformed platform querycount, and transformed first-level platform engagement count. To do so,promotional server 104 first determines, for each session records 608, asession-specific normalization factor. In one embodiment, promotionalserver 104 generates the session-specific normalization factor bysumming the second-level platform engagement count, the platform querycount, and the intermediate first-level platform engagement countcorresponding to each of the session records 608. Promotional server 104may optionally store the session-specific normalization factor in thedata repository such as by adding one more columns to the sessions datatable (e.g., by appending the session-specific normalization factor toits corresponding session records row)

After generating all the sessions-specific normalization factors,promotional server 104 then generates each of the transformedsecond-level platform engagement counts for each of the session records608 by dividing the values stored in the second-level platformengagement counts 605 by the session-specific normalization factor.Similarly, promotional server 104 generates the transformed platformquery count by dividing the value stored in the platform query count 604by the session-specific normalization factor.

Further, Promotional server 104 generates a transformed first-levelplatform engagement count using a slightly different technique. There,promotional server 104 divides the values stored in the intermediatefirst-level platform engagement count by the session-specificnormalization factor.

At 4600, promotional server 104 stores, in the data repository and foreach session record, the transformed session records data. In someembodiments, promotional server 104 stores the transformed sessionrecords data for each session records 608 immediately after generatingthe transformed session records data. In this manner, promotional server104 performs steps 4500 and 4600 consecutively for one row of sessionrecords 608 before moving on to performing steps 4500 and 4600 for asubsequent row of session records 608. In other embodiments, promotionalserver 104 first performs step 4500 for all rows of session records 608and then performs step 4600 for all rows of session records 608. Aperson having ordinary skill in the art would recognize that thisdisclosure contemplates these and other alterations in the stepsdiscussed with regards to method 4000.

Additionally, after 4600, promotional server 104, in some embodiments,then generates a set of session coordinates data for each of the sessionrecords 608. The set of session coordinates data comprises three valuesthat define a location in a three-dimensional space. In one embodiment,the three values for each of the session records 608 comprise thetransformed first-level platform engagement count, transformed platformquery count, and transformed second-level platform engagement count. Aperson having ordinary skill would recognize that the sessioncoordinates data may be stored using various formats. For example, thesession coordinates data may be stored as a single entry in a table suchas the sessions data table shown in FIG. 6 , three different entries ina table such as the sessions data table shown in FIG. 6 , or may bestored in other locations or data structures in a database repository.However, separately storing the session coordinates data for each of thesession records 608 is not strictly necessary since the informationdefining the session coordinates data is stored in the data repositoryafter step 4600.

At 4700, promotional server 104 retrieves and maps, for each sessionrecord, the transformed session records onto a three-dimensional space.For example, in one embodiment, mapping the transformed session recordsonto a three-dimensional space comprises the step of generating a tablerepresenting the three-dimensional space where platform sessions arerepresented via session coordinates data comprising the transformedsession records data. Such a table is populated with the transformedsession records data and the session identifiers corresponding to allthe represented and stored platform sessions. Additionally, the tablemay comprise the centroid coordinates data associated with clusters thatwill be discussed in more detail herein, the corresponding clusteridentifiers, and indicators for keeping track of whether a rowcorresponds to a platform session or a cluster.

In other embodiments, mapping the session records comprises generating athree-dimensional graph or plot comprising three axes: (1) a first-levelplatform engagement count axis, (2) a platform query count axis, and (3)a second-level platform engagement count axis. Mapping the sessionrecords thus comprises plotting a plurality of points representingplatform sessions. Promotional server 104 determines the location ofeach of the points based on the transformed session records datacorresponding to each of the platform sessions stored in the datarepository. For example, FIGS. 10A and 10B show example embodiments of athree-dimensional plot comprising a plurality of points wherein eachpoint represents a platform session as described herein. Such plots arereferred to herein as three-dimensional event spaces since theyrepresent information related to user inputs or events associated withan interactive promotional interface.

FIG. 11A is provided for illustration purposes. It shows an embodimentof a three-dimensional space where platform sessions are plotted basedon their originally stored first-level platform engagement count 603,platform query count 604, and second-level platform engagement count605. Thus, FIG. 11A is not based on transformed session records data.FIG. 11A illustrates an embodiment where the first-level platformengagement count (e.g., the axis labeled “number of deal impressions”)dominates the clustering of platform sessions due to its unduly largesize when compared to the other factors; that is, the locations of theplurality of points are skewed towards the axis corresponding to thenumber of tiles presented during a platform session. In this particularexample embodiment, the first-level platform engagement count 603 isabout twenty times larger than either platform query counts 604 orsecond-level platform engagement counts 605. The result is thatclustering platform sessions based on the three-dimensional event spaceis impractical and provides limited insight.

In contrast, FIG. 11B shows a three-dimensional event space whereplatform sessions are plotted based on based on transformed sessionrecords as discussed in relation to method 4000. This embodimentillustrates how, due to the transformations effectuated by promotionalserver 104, the plurality of points comprise a single plane. Further,the three coordinates for each of the plurality of points on the planeadds up to 100%. Clustering user behavior based on thisthree-dimensional space provides more insights than what could beobtained from FIG. 11B as will be illustrated by the remainder of thediscussion provided herein.

Clustering Platform Sessions

After generating the transformed session records, the promotional system102 utilizes the transformed session records or the session coordinatesdata corresponding to each of the session records 608 to identifyclusters of user behavior.

FIG. 5 shows a flowchart of an example method 5000 for clustering userbehavior based session records. At 5200, promotional server 104determines the number of clusters to be identified. In some embodiments,the number of clusters to be identified may be based on a pre-determinedstored value (e.g., a value specifying five clusters) in the datarepository. In other embodiments, the number of clusters to beidentified may be based on user-defined input values provided to thepromotional system. In yet other embodiments, the number of clusters isprogrammatically determined by promotional server 104; in thisembodiment, promotional server 104 employs a statistical method or amachine-learning algorithm to identify an optimal number of clusters tobe identified. For example, promotional server 104 may implement a gapstatistic method, average silhouette approach, elbow method, or thelike, to identify an optimal number of clusters to be identified.Ideally, the optimal choice of clusters will strike a balance between(1) minimizing the distance between a cluster location (e.g., a centroidrepresenting a cluster) in the three-dimensional space and the datapoints (e.g., the session coordinates data corresponding to each of theplurality of session records rows) associated with the cluster and (2)maximum clustering accuracy by assigning each data point to its owncluster. The details of the various possible solutions for optimizingthe number of clusters are omitted herein avoid overcomplicating thisdisclosure.

At 5300, promotional server 104 generates, based on the number ofclusters to be identified, a plurality of cluster-defining data. Inother words, each of the clusters is associated with centroidcoordinates data and a cluster identifier, which are hereby jointlyreferred to as cluster-defining data. The centroid coordinates datadefine a centroid location in a three-dimensional space and thus,necessarily include at least three values where each value specifies aquantity associated with one axis of the three-dimensional space. Thecentroid coordinates data is similar to the session coordinates data inthat both sets of data comprise coordinates specifying locations in athree-dimensional space and thus may be used for mapping points in saidspace. In this manner, each set of centroid coordinates data representsthe location of a cluster in the three-dimensional space. Whenpromotional server 104 first generates the cluster-defining data, theinitial values for the centroid coordinates data are randomized; thatis, promotional server 104 assigns initially random values to each ofthe coordinates included in the centroid coordinates data.

In one embodiment, promotional server 104 then stores thecluster-defining data in a data repository. For example, promotionalserver 104 maps the clusters generated at step 5300 in the samethree-dimensional space that includes the mapping of the transformedsession records. As discussed in the context of step 4700 of method4000, promotional server 104 may map the transformed session recordsonto a three-dimensional space by generating a table representing thethree-dimensional space where platform sessions are there representedvia their corresponding session coordinates data. Thus, in the contextof method 5000, promotional server 104 may append the cluster-definingdata to the table. As discussed in the context of step 4700 of method4000, the table may include an indicator for keeping track whether a rowcorresponds to a platform session or a cluster. The indicator may be aBoolean variable taking one of two values: one or zero.

As also discussed in the context of step 4700 of method 4000,promotional server 104 may instead or in addition map the sessionrecords by generating a three-dimensional graph or plot comprising threeaxes. In this embodiment, mapping the session records comprises plottinga plurality of points representing platform sessions. Thus, in thecontext of method 5000, promotional server 104 may add pointsrepresenting the clusters to the three-dimensional graph or plot. To doso, promotional server 104 utilizes the centroid coordinates dataassociated with each cluster via a cluster identifier. Thus, eachcluster is represented by a point that is defined by the centroidcoordinates data.

At 5400, promotional server 104 associates, for each session record, thesession identifier with a cluster identifier. To that end, promotionalserver 104 first finds, for each platform session, a nearest cluster inthe three-dimensional space. In other words, promotional server 104compares the distance between a point in the three-dimensional spacerepresenting a platform session (e.g., a point defined by a set ofsession coordinates data) and each of the centroid locations representedin the three-dimensional space. Based on this comparison, promotionalserver 104 then determines the minimum such distance, and promotionalserver 104 subsequently associates the session identifier correspondingto the platform session being considered with the cluster identifiercorresponding to the nearest centroid location (e.g., the centroidlocation associated with the minimum distance).

In some embodiments, promotional server 104 calculates the distancesusing a Euclidean distance formula. For example, promotional server 104may utilize a Euclidean formula (1) to determine the distance betweentwo points p—with coordinates (p₁, p₂, p₃)—and q—with coordinates (q₁,q₂, q₃)—in the three-dimensional space:D(p,q)=√{square root over (d(p ₁ −Q ₁)²+(p ₂ −q ₂)₂+(p ₃ −q ₃)²)}  (1)

Thus, promotional server 104 programmatically implements Euclideanformula (1) to obtain the distance between a platformsession—represented by session coordinates data (e.g., a transformedfirst-level platform engagement count, a transformed platform querycount, and a transformed second-level platform engagement count)—and acluster—represented by centroid coordinates data comprising anx-coordinate value, y-coordinate value, and z-coordinate value.

Promotional server 104 is thus configured to find the Euclideandistances between the platform session and each of the clusters mappedin the three-dimensional space. Subsequently, promotional server 104then finds the cluster nearest to the platform session and associatesthe session identifier corresponding to the platform session with thecluster identifier corresponding to the nearest cluster.

Promotional server 104 repeats these steps for every platform sessionsuch that by the end of step 5400, every platform session mapped in thethree-dimensional space becomes associated with one cluster identifier.Conversely, the cluster identifiers may be associated with one or moresession identifiers.

At 5500, promotional server 104 modifies, for each cluster-definingdata, the centroid coordinates data. At this step, promotional server104 reassigns the centroid locations corresponding to each cluster to anew location. In one embodiment, promotional server 104 determines thenew location for each cluster by calculating the average location of theplurality of platform sessions associated with the cluster.

For example, in one embodiment, promotional server 104 programmaticallyimplements a method to calculate the center of mass of the plurality ofplatform sessions associated with a cluster. Taking a cluster A as anexample, promotional server 104 first adds all transformed first-levelplatform engagement count values corresponding to the platform sessionsthat were associated with cluster A at step 5400. Subsequently,promotional server 104 divides the sum of all transformed first-levelplatform engagement values by the total number of platform sessionsassociated with cluster A. Promotional server 104 uses the resultingvalue to modify the x-coordinate value of the centroid coordinates datathat is associated with cluster A.

Promotional server 104 then determines the new y-coordinate value forthe centroid coordinates data that is associated with cluster A in asimilar fashion. First, promotional server 104 adds all transformedplatform query count values corresponding to the platform sessions thatwere associated with cluster A at step 5400. Subsequently, promotionalserver 104 divides the sum of all transformed platform query countvalues by the total number of platform sessions associated with clusterA. Promotional server 104 uses the resulting value to modify they-coordinate value of the centroid coordinates data that is associatedwith cluster A.

Promotional server 104 then determines the new z-coordinate value forthe centroid coordinates that associated with cluster A. First,promotional server 104 adds all transformed second-level platformengagement count values corresponding to the platform sessions that wereassociated with cluster A at step 5400. Subsequently, promotional server104 divides the sum of all transformed platform query count values bythe total number of platform sessions associated with cluster A.Promotional server 104 uses the resulting value to modify thez-coordinate value of the centroid coordinates data that is associatedwith cluster A.

Promotional server 104 finds the new x-coordinate values, y-coordinatevalues, and z-coordinate values for each of the remaining clusters to beidentified in a manner similar to what was described above in thecontext of example cluster A.

A person having ordinary skill in the art would recognize thatpromotional server 104 would, in some embodiments, modify values storedin the data repository in order to modify the x-coordinate values,y-coordinate values, and z-coordinate values for the clusters. Namely,in one embodiment, promotional server 104 modifies, in promotionaldatabase 106, the centroid coordinates data associated with the clusteridentifier that uniquely identifies the cluster whose coordinate valuesare to be modified. Promotional server 104 does so at step 5600 ofmethod 5000.

At 5700, promotional server 104 compares the previous centroidcoordinates data with the newly generated centroid coordinates data(generated at step 5500) associated with each of the clusters. Ifpromotional server 104 rinds that the centroid coordinates data for allclusters has remained the same, then promotional server 104 advances tostep 5800 where method 5000 ends.

On the other hand, returning to step 5700, if promotional server 104determines that the centroid coordinates data corresponding to any ofthe clusters has changed, then promotional server 104 returns to step5400, where it iteratively repeats steps 5400-5700. Thus, promotionalserver 104 reassigns centroid locations for each of the clustersiteratively until all the centroid locations remain in the same locationfor two consecutive iterations of steps 5400-5700.

At the end of method 5000, the data repository includes an associationbetween a cluster identifier and a centroid coordinates data for all thecluster identifiers, wherein the centroid coordinates data identifiesthe location of the identified clusters. In another sense, each of thelocations corresponding to the identified clusters also corresponds to acenter of mass of a group of platform sessions in the three-dimensionalspace. Each of said groups of platform sessions have features that aresimilar among the platform sessions. In this context, the similaritiesrepresent user behavior captured via user inputs during each of theplatform sessions.

FIG. 12 shows an example embodiment depicting a visualization of method5000 for clustering user behavior based on platform sessions. FIG. 12shows an embodiment of the platform sessions shown in FIG. 11B exceptthat instead of showing it in three-dimensions, the clusters are shownin the two-dimensional plane corresponding to the triangular planeobserved in FIG. 11B (See FIG. 11B, where all locations corresponding toplatform sessions are shown as falling in a triangular plane). In theembodiment illustrated in FIG. 12 , five separate clusters weregenerated for identification. The initial, randomized locations of theclusters are shown as 1101 a-1105 a, whereas the final, identifiedlocations of the clusters are shown as 1101 b-1105 b. As shown in thevisualization of FIG. 11 , each of the locations of the clusters changedbetween iterations of steps 5400-5700 of method 5000 until the finalcluster locations were identified. The intermediate locations of theclusters are shown as traces connecting the initial, randomizedlocations to the final identified, locations of the clusters.

Using Clusters of User Behavior Based on Platform Sessions

As described above, promotional server 104 is configured to findclusters of user behavior based on session records. At the conclusion ofa method for clustering user behavior, such as method 5000, promotionalserver 104 stores in the data repository a plurality centroidcoordinates data that represent the locations of a plurality of clustersin the three-dimensional space. The utility of identifying clusters ofuser behaviors is illustrated with a few examples in this disclosure.However, a person having ordinary skill in the art would recognize thatthe present disclosure could be used in the promotional system 102 for avariety of additional purposes besides those described herein.

In one embodiment, the promotional system 102 may define behaviorcategorization boundaries for each platform session and the promotionalsystem 102 may analyze the purchase rates for platform sessions thatfall within each categorization. For example, FIG. 13 shows an exampleembodiment where the promotional system 102 defines behaviorcategorization boundaries in a two-dimensional plane. Thetwo-dimensional plane may correspond to a triangular plane observed in athree-dimensional space where platform sessions are mapped such as thatseen in FIG. 11B (See FIG. 11B, where all locations corresponding toplatform sessions are shown as falling in a triangular plane even thoughFIG. 11B is a three-dimensional space). The two-dimensional plane mayfurther be similar to the two-dimensional plane discussed in the contextof FIG. 12 .

Returning to FIG. 13 , the two-dimensional plane where all platformsessions fall is divided into five category areas 1101-1105. Each of theareas is bound by a categorization boundary calculated by promotionalserver 104 based on the centroid coordinates data associated with thefive cluster identifiers. In one embodiment, promotional server 104determines the centroid coordinate data sets for the five clustersaccording to a method similar to method 5000 previously describedherein.

In generating the five category areas 1101-1105, server 105 determinesthe purchase rate associated with each of the category areas. To thatend, server 105 utilizes an indicator of whether a platform sessionresulted in a purchase such as platform output status indicator 606 (seeFIG. 6 ). For example, considering category area 1101, server 105 wouldfirst determine the cluster identifier associated with the centroidcoordinates data corresponding to the area bound by category area 1101.Subsequently, server 105 retrieves from the data repository all sessionrecords, such as session records 608 (see FIG. 6 ), that are associatedwith the cluster identifier corresponding to category area 1101.

Thus, to determine the purchase rate, server 105 is configured togenerate (1) a divisor comprising a value equal to the sum of the totalnumber of platform sessions associated with the cluster identifiercorresponding to category area 1101. (2) a dividend comprising a valueequal to the total number of platform sessions that resulted in aconsume purchase (e.g., the total number of session records 608 storinga “1” in the platform output status indicator 606), and (3) a purchaserate comprising the quotient resulting from dividing the valuesgenerated at (1) and (2).

Returning to the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 13 , the purchase ratefor category area 1101 is 1%, category area 1102 is 3%, category area1103 is 11%, category area 1104 is 10%, and category area 1105 is 5%. Apromotional system 102 may use the purchase rates and other collecteddata to classify and describe the behavior exhibited in during each ofthe platform sessions considered. The table reproduced below illustratesone embodiment for categorizing user behavior based on the platformsessions and describing the expected user behavior associated with eachof those sessions.

Color Name Purchase Rate Population Size Behavior Red Bad  0.9% 10.3%Searches, but finds either few results, Hunter or results do not meritviewing Purple Scroller  3.4% 18.4% Scrolls Impressions, but views fewdeals Dark Bouncer  4.9% 38.6% Only views deals (likely from email orBlue a search engine result), doesn’t get many impressions or dosearches Green Gatherer  9.8% 15.8% Scrolls Impressions, and also viewsdeals Light Hunter 11.1% 16.8% Searches, finds interesting results, andBlue views them

Thus, with reference to FIG. 13 , category area 1101 corresponds to theBad Hunters categorization, category area 1102 corresponds to theScrollers categorization, category area 1103 corresponds to the Hunterscategorization, category area 1104 corresponds to the Gathererscategorization, and category area 1105 corresponds to the Bouncerscategorization.

For further context, the platform sessions falling in the Bad Hunterscategory have a large number of searches, but relatively few tilespresented, very few item views, and a very low purchase rate. The onlyway to do this would be for a user to submit search queries (oftenrepeatedly) for items that either don't exist in promotion and marketingservice, or to which the promotional system 102 provides poormatches—that is, the search results comprise items that do not matchwhat a user expected to obtain from submitting a search query. Thiscategory is labeled “Bad Hunters” because, based on the general behaviorexhibited during a platform session, these users seem to know what theyare looking for, but they largely return empty-handed.

The platform sessions falling in the Scrollers category have a verylarge number of tiles presented, but few search queries or item views,and a poor purchase rate. To produce this behavior, a user would have toscroll over very long lists of tiles to collect many tiles presented,but click through very few of those tiles. This category is thus labeledas “Scrollers”, as they browse over a very large number of tiles but seerelatively little that catches their interest.

The platform sessions in the Bouncers category can have a large relativeproportion of item views, but relatively few search queries or tilespresented. The only way to produce a platform session with such fewtiles presented is to click a deal link either from email or a searchengine, and then to leave the website or mobile app without furtherexploration. As a result, this category is labeled “Bouncers.” Theirpurchase rate is middling at best. It should also be noted that this isthe most prevalent group, including almost 40% of all platform sessions.

The platform sessions falling in the Gatherers category have relativelyfew search queries but have a healthy mixture of tiles presented anditem views. They likely scroll quite a bit without necessarily knowingprecisely what they're looking for, but they find tiles that interestthem and click on them. We term this category “Gatherers.”

The platform sessions falling in the Hunters category have a mixture ofitem views, tiles presented, and search queries. They likely submitsearch queries often, which returns tiles associated with items thatinterest them, and they then click on those tiles. These users look forwhat they want and often find it, and so this category is labeled as“Hunters.” Purchase rates are highest for this group, though onlymarginally greater than the platform sessions falling under theGatherers category.

Using such clear categorizations of user behavior based on platformsessions, the promotional system 102 may segment the results of A/Bexperiments to gain greater insight into user behaviors from the A/Bexperiments. FIG. 14 shows an example embodiment of an A/B testinginterface that incorporates the present disclosure. There, an A/Btesting interface provides results from A/B experiments. Further, theA/B testing interface enables a user to select, via drop-down menu 1401,one of the user behavior categories. Each of the user behaviorcategories of drop-down menu 1401 may be an identified cluster using aclustering method such as method 5000 disclosed herein. Returning toFIG. 14 , promotional server 104, in response to receiving user inputdata indicating a selection of a user behavior via drop-down menu 1401,causes the rendered experiment results and analysis to be filteredaccording to the user selection. For example, if a user selects the userbehavior category corresponding to “hunter.” then promotional server 104is configured to only display experiment results associated withplatform sessions falling under the Hunter category area (see, e.g.,FIG. 13 ). Accordingly, in such a scenario, the A/B testing interfaceprovides a T-score, Lift, and session totals based on only thoseplatform sessions falling under the Hunter category. Similarly, becausethe segmentation causes the A/B testing interface to analyze subsets ofthe total population of platform sessions, the Status 1402 may bedifferent for separate categories. For example, even though the statusis “flat” for the currently selected category in FIG. 14 , the statusmay not be “flat” for other categories.

In a different embodiment, promotional server 104 categorizes useraccounts utilizing clusters of user behavior based on platform sessions.For example, in this embodiment, promotional server 104 is configured tocollect and store session records. In one embodiment, the manner ofcollecting and storing session records utilizes the techniques discussedin the context of method 3000 and method 4000 step 4200. As previouslydiscussed, promotional system 102 is configured to store the sessionrecords in a sessions data table as illustrated in FIG. 6 . There, a rowcorresponding to session records 608 includes a user account identifier602. Thus, session records 608 are associated with user accounts via theuser account identifiers 602.

For further context, a user of a consumer device 108 may create a useraccount by providing various types of information. In this regard, theuser may create an account and provide payment information, credentialinformation such as a user account name and a user account password, anddiscretionary data such as information relating to user demographics(e.g., age, gender, etc.), interests, hobbies, location etc. Uponreceiving inputs indicating that a user account has been created or isto be created, promotional server 104 is configured to generate useraccount data for storing in the data repository. The user account datacomprises a user account identifier, user account name, user accountpassword, and other data.

Subsequently, when a user of a consumer device 108 logs into thepromotional system 102 (such as via a log-in interface where the usermay provide a user account name, user account password, and/or othercredentials) and accesses an interactive promotional interface,promotional server 104 initiates a platform session. As part ofinitiation a platform session, promotional server 104 generates asession record, such as session records 608 of FIG. 6 , that associatesthe user account identifier with a session identifier. As previouslydiscussed in the context of methods 3000 and 4000, promotional server104 is configured to terminate the platform session at the completion ofa purchase, when the user closes the website or mobile app providing theinteractive promotional interface, or when the promotional server 104detects that the user has been idle for a pre-determined period of time.

However, for each subsequent time that the user of a consumer device 108accesses the promotional system 102, a new platform session isgenerated, which promotional server 104 associates with the user accountcorresponding to the user of the consumer device 108. In this manner, auser account may have a plurality of platform sessions associated to it,each of which comprises a respective session record of the sessionrecords 608.

Thus, promotional server 104 is configured to generate transformedsession records data and session coordinates data for each of theplatform sessions associated with a user account identifier. To generatethe transformed session records data, promotional server 104 may utilizetechniques similar to those discussed in the context of method 4000.Similarly, promotional server 104 is configured to identify for eachplatform session the nearest cluster. Promotional server 104 may utilizetechniques similar to those discussed in the context of method 5000. Asa consequence of employing these techniques, promotional server 104associates every platform session with a cluster identifier.

Promotional server 104 may subsequently determine the proper cluster toassociate with the user account. For example, in one embodiment,promotional server 104 determines the cluster identifier most frequentlyassociated with platform sessions associated with the user account.Promotional server 104 may then associate the user account identifierwith the cluster identifier such as by including the cluster identifieras part of a table storing all user account data.

A person having ordinary skill in the art would recognize that othermethods for associating a user account identifier to a clusteridentifier may be implemented. For example, instead of basing theassociation on the most frequently associated cluster identifier withplatform sessions, promotional server 104 may use a subset of the mostrecent platform sessions generated by a user as the basis for clusteringthe user behavior.

Once promotional server 104 has associated the user account with acluster identifier, then the promotional system 102 may use such anassociation to improve the content presented for its users.

In one embodiment, promotional server 104 sends different interactivepromotional interface data based on the cluster identifier that isassociated with a user account. For example, a first user of a firstconsumer device 108 may log into the promotional system 102 by providinga user account name and a user account password corresponding to a useraccount that is associated with a first cluster identifier. In responseto receiving the credentials associated with the user account for thefirst user, promotional server 104 determines that the user account isassociated with a first cluster identifier and, as a consequence, sendsa first version of an interactive promotional interface data. The firstversion of an interactive promotional interface data is configured tocause a consumer device 108 to display an interactive promotionalinterface comprising a first configuration. For example, FIG. 15Aillustrates an example first layout that may be implemented by theinteractive promotional interface in relation to this embodiment. There,tiles are represented by rectangular slots 1501, 1502, and 1503.Notably, only three tiles are displayed for a user via the display ofconsumer device 108.

Continuing with the same embodiment, a second user of a second consumerdevice 108 may log into the promotional system 102. There the seconduser may provide as user input a user account name and a user accountpassword corresponding to a user account that is associated with asecond cluster identifier. In response to receiving such input,promotional server 104 would then determine that the user account isassociated with a second cluster identifier and, as a consequence, sendsa second version of an interactive promotional interface data. The datais configured to cause the consumer device 108 to display an interactivepromotional interface comprising a second configuration. For example,FIG. 15B illustrates an example second layout that may be implemented bythe interactive promotional interface in relation to this embodiment.There, tiles are represented by rectangular graphics 1504, 1505, 1506,1507, 1508, 1509, 1510, and 1511. Notably eight tiles are displayed fora user via the display of consumer device 108.

As an additional example, in one embodiment, FIG. 8 may comprise aconfiguration for the interactive promotional interface displayed in aconsumer device 108 when the consumer device 108 is in use by a userassociated with a user account that is, in turn, associated with a firstcluster identifier. On the other hand. FIG. 10 may comprise a secondconfiguration for the interactive promotional interface displayed in aconsumer device 108 when the consumer device 108 is in use by a userassociated with a second user account that is, in turn, associated witha second cluster identifier. Thus, promotional system 102 may beconfigured to display different configurations of an interactivepromotional interface depending on the cluster identifier with which auser is associated.

Signal Diagram

FIGS. 16A and 16B show a signal diagram of an example data flowrepresented by method 6000, which exemplifies a method for clusteringuser behavior based on platform sessions data. Method 6000 is describedas being performed by a promotional server 104, a consumer device 108,and a promotional database 106. These may be similar to those previouslydiscussed with regards to FIG. 1 .

At 6010, promotional server 104 receives access request data fromconsumer device 108. In one embodiment, the access request data may bethe result of opening a specific web page via a web browser applicationin the consumer device 108. In such an embodiment, then the accessrequest data comprises an HTTP request. In other embodiments, the accessrequest data may be received by promotional server 104 as a result of auser opening or executing a mobile application installed in the consumerdevice 108. In either embodiment, the consumer device 108 is configuredto send request data to promotional server 104 via a network.

In some embodiments, alter receiving the initial access request data,promotional server 104 sends log-in data to consumer device 108, wherethe log-in data is configured to cause consumer device 108 to render alog-in interface via a display screen of the consumer device 108. Inthis manner, promotional server 104 enables a user to input credentials,such as a user account name and a user account password, associated witha user account. Thus, in this embodiment, after receiving the log-ininput data from consumer device 108, then promotional server 104determines whether the input data matches the data stored for a useraccount. If the data matches, then promotional server 104 proceeds tostep 6020. If the data does not match the data stored for a useraccount, then promotional server 104 may cause consumer device 108 toagain request input credentials from the user. These initial steps andinputs are omitted from FIGS. 16A and 16B to avoid overcomplicating thefigure.

At 6020, promotional server 104 generates a session records rowconfigured for storage in promotional database 106. The records row maybe similar to session records 608 discussed in the context of FIG. 6 .Additional details regarding the generation of a row of session records608 may be found in the discussion of step 4200 of method 4000 providedherein. Importantly, the session records row includes a sessionidentifier that uniquely identifies the session records row.

At 6030, promotional server 104 sends, to promotional database 106, thenewly generated the session records row for storage. In someembodiments, the newly generated session records row is appended to asessions data table such as that embodied in FIG. 6 . Additional detailsregarding the sessions data table may be found in the discussion of step4200 of method 4000 provided herein.

At 6040, promotional server 104 determines the number of tiles to bepresented to a user via the consumer device 108. As part of 6040,promotional server 104 generates interactive promotional interface datathat is configured to cause consumer device 108 to render an interactivepromotional interface on a display. Thus, the number of tiles to bepresented depend on the interactive promotional interface data. Forexample, in some configurations, the interactive promotional interfacedata may cause the consumer device to initially render three tiles forthe user; in other configurations, the interactive promotional interfacedata may cause the consumer device to initially render eight tiles forthe user.

At 6050, promotional server 104 modifies the session records row toreflect, via a first-level platform engagement count, the number oftiles presented to a user via the consumer device 108.

At 6060, promotional server 104 sends, to consumer device 108,interactive promotional interface data configured to cause the consumerdevice 108 to render an interactive promotional interface via a display.Additional details regarding the interactive promotional interface datamay be found in the discussions of methods 3000 and 4000 provided herein

At 6070, promotional server 104 receives, from the user of consumerdevice 108, user input data. The discussion of step 4200 of method 4000is particularly relevant regarding the user input data involved in 6070.The user input data comprises, for example, data capturing the clickingand dragging of a scrolling component, data comprising a search querysubmitted via a query input component, data capturing mouse clicks,screen taps or keyboard inputs by which a user selects a tile to causeitem views to be rendered, data capturing a series of user selectionsand data inputs that execute a transaction such as a purchase of anitem, and the like. Other examples of input data may comprise datacapturing mouse clicks executed by the user in areas of the interactiveuser interface that do not necessary select a tile or an actuator button901 (see FIG. 9 ).

Even though promotional server 104 does not necessarily utilize sometypes of user inputs to modify values stored in the session records row,promotional server 104 may utilize some of these inputs to determinewhether a user has been idle (e.g., has not provided any user inputs)for a predetermined amount of time. In some embodiments, when a user hasbeen idle for a pre-determined amount of time, promotional server 104ends the session and stops updating a session records row.

At 6080, promotional server 104 parses the received user input data(from step 6070) to determine the type of input that the data comprises(e.g., the type of user action specified by the user input data) and todetermine the proper actions or outputs to be sent to the consumerdevice 108. At 6090, promotional server 104 modifies the session recordsrow according to the user input data received. Additional detailsregarding the effects of certain user inputs are provided in thediscussion of step 4200 of method 4000 provided herein. For example,scrolling through the interactive promotional interface causespromotional server 104 to increase a first-level platform engagementcount in the session records row. Similarly, clicking on a tile, whichcauses consumer device 108 to render an item view, causes promotionalserver 104 to increase a second-level platform engagement count in thesession records row. Submitting a search query via a query inputcomponent causes promotional server 104 to increase a platform querycount in the session records row. Finally, purchasing an item via theinteractive promotional interface causes promotional server 104 toincrease a platform output status indicator.

At 6095, promotional server 104 sends interactive promotional interfacedata to consumer device 108 to reflect the proper output correspondingto the user input received at 6070. For example, at 6095, promotionalserver 104 may send data that causes the consumer device 108 to renderan item view or to render the results of a search query or to renderadditional tiles as a result of scrolling, etc.

A person having ordinary skill in the art would understand that steps6070-6095 may be iteratively repeated until a platform session ends. Inthis manner, promotional server 104 would collect and record allrelevant data associated with a user's behavior during a platformsession. As discussed in the context of methods 3000 and 4000, aplatform session ends when a user becomes idle for a pre-determinedperiod of time, when the user purchases an item through promotionalserver 104, closes the browser where the interactive promotionalinterface is rendered, closes the mobile application utilized to accesspromotional server 104. In this manner, if the user continues accessingcontent via the interactive promotional interface after a session ends,promotional server 104 generates a new session records row with a newunique session identifier.

At 6100, promotional server 104 retrieves, from promotional database106, the first-level platform engagement count for all the sessionrecords being stored in promotional database 106. Additional detailsregarding this step may be found in the discussion of step 4300 ofmethod 4000 provided herein.

A person having ordinary skill in the art would understand that the stepof retrieving any information from the database involves a requestmessage being sent to promotional database 106 and a subsequent responsefrom promotional database 106 comprising the data being requested viathe request message. This general request/response dynamic applies tothis and subsequent steps discussed herein where promotional server 104retrieves data from promotional database 106.

At 6110, promotional server 104 generates intermediate first-levelplatform engagement counts for each of the session records. Additionaldetails regarding the intermediate first-level platform engagementcounts may be found in the discussion of step 4300 of method 4000provided herein. In at least one embodiment, the intermediatefirst-level platform engagement counts are generated by dividing thevalue stored in the first-level platform engagement counts by the samedivisor. In one embodiment, the divisor is pre-determined to be a factorof 20.

At 6120, promotional server 104 stores the intermediate first-levelplatform engagement counts in promotional database 106. In someembodiments, the intermediate first-level platform engagement counts areappended to each of their corresponding session records rows such asrows of session records 608 of FIG. 6 . Additional details regarding thestorage of the intermediate first-level platform engagement counts maybe found in the discussion of step 4400 of method 4000 provided herein.

At 6130, promotional server 104 retrieves the intermediate first-levelplatform engagement counts, platform query counts, and second-levelplatform engagement counts for each session records row. Additionaldetails regarding 6130 may be found in the discussion of step 4500 ofmethod 4000 provided herein.

At 6140, promotional server 104 generates, for each platform session(corresponding to a session records row), transformed session recordsdata. Additional details regarding the generation of the transformedsession records may be found in the discussion of step 4500 of method4000 provided herein.

At 6150, promotional server 104 stores the newly generated transformedsession records data in promotional database 106. In some embodiments,the transformed session records data is appended to the correspondingsession records row in the sessions data table. Additional detailsregarding this step may be found in the discussion of step 4600 ofmethod 4000 provided herein. As discussed there, in some embodiments,promotional server 104 also, and optionally, generates a set of sessioncoordinates data for each session record. The session coordinates datacomprise the transformed session records (e.g., the transformedfirst-level platform engagement count, platform query count, andsecond-level platform engagement count). Promotional server 104subsequently stores the session coordinates data in promotional database106 and associates the session coordinates data to their correspondingsession via a session identifier.

At optional step 6160, promotional server 104 generates transformedsession records mapping data. The transformed mappings data may comprisea table representing a three-dimensional space where platform sessionsare represented via session coordinates data comprising the transformedsession records data. Alternatively, the transformed session recordsmapping data may comprise the generating of a three-dimensional graph orplot comprising three axes: (1) a first-level platform engagement countaxis, (2) a platform query count axis, and (3) a second-level platformengagement count axis. Subsequently, promotional server 104 may map thesession records by plotting a plurality of points on the generatedthree-dimensional graph or plot. Serve 104 determines the location ofeach of the plotted points based on the transformed session records data(or the session coordinates data) corresponding to each of the platformsessions stored in promotional database 106.

Additional details regarding the table representing a three-dimensionalspace and the three-dimensional graph or plot may be found in thediscussion of step 4700 of method 4000 provided herein.

At optional step 6170, promotional server 104 stores the transformedsession records mapping data in promotional database 106. Further, atoptional step 6180, promotional server 104 may send the transformedsession records mapping data to a consumer device 108 or any otherclient device (for example, a merchant device) that may form part of apromotional system 102 (see FIG. 1 ) for rendering via a display.

At 6190, promotional server 104 determines the number of clusters to beidentified. Additional details regarding the determination of the numberof clusters to be identified may be found in the discussion of step 5200of method 5000 provided herein.

At 6200, promotional server 104 generates cluster-defining data whichcomprises at least a cluster identifier and centroid coordinates datafor each of the clusters to be identifier (determined at step 6190).Additional details regarding the cluster-defining data may be found inin the discussion of step 5300 of method 5000 provided herein.

At 6210, promotional server 104 stores the newly generatedcluster-defining data in promotional database 106. Additional detailsregarding this storing step may be found in the discussion of method5000 provided herein. Similar to the discussion of method 5000, step6210 may comprise mapping the clusters associated with thecluster-defining data in a manner similar to how the platform sessionsare mapped, such as in steps 6160 and 4700. In other words, thecluster-defining data may be appended to a table representing thethree-dimensional space where platform sessions are represented viatheir corresponding session coordinates data. In some embodiments,promotional server 104 may instead or in addition plot pointsrepresenting the clusters (by utilizing the centroid coordinates datacorresponding to each cluster) in the three-dimensional graph or plotoptionally generated at 6170.

At 6220, promotional server 104 retrieves the transformed sessionrecords data for each of the session records rows in promotionaldatabase 106. In other embodiments, instead of the transformed sessionrecords data, promotional server 104 retrieves the session coordinatesdata associated with each of the session identifiers stored inpromotional database 106. The minor distinction between the transformedsession records data and the session coordinates data does not affectthe clustering of user behavior and either type of data may be used forstep 6220-6290.

At 6230, promotional server 104 retrieves the cluster-defining data foreach cluster, including the centroid coordinates data of each cluster.

At 6240, promotional server 104 finds, for each platform session asrepresented by its transformed session records data (or sessioncoordinates data), the nearest cluster. Additional details regarding howpromotional server 104 finds the nearest cluster to each platformsession may be found in the discussion of step 5400 of method 5000. Inessence, for this step, each platform session comprises threecoordinates: transformed first-level platform engagement count, platformquery count, and transformed second-level platform engagement count.Additionally, each cluster also comprises three coordinates as specifiedby its centroid coordinates data: x-coordinate value, y-coordinatevalue, and z-coordinate value. Thus, promotional server 104 isconfigured to find the nearest cluster (as represented by its centroidcoordinates data) to each of the platform sessions (as represented byits transformed session records data or session coordinates data).

At 6250, promotional server 104 associates each session identifier withthe cluster identifier of the cluster nearest the platform sessioncorresponding to the session identifier; and at 6260, promotional server104 stores the association in promotional database 106. In this manner,every session identifier becomes associated with one cluster identifier.Further, each cluster identifier is associated with a plurality ofsession identifiers. This discussion assumes an environment where thenumber of session records are much larger than the number of clusters tobe identified. Promotional server 104 may associate the sessionidentifiers with the cluster identifiers using various techniques. Forexample, promotional server 104 may append, for each session recordsrow, a cluster identifier to a session records row stored in a sessionsdata table in promotional database 106. Alternatively, promotionalserver 104 may append, for each cluster, a session identifier to thedata structure storing the cluster-identifying data of each cluster; inthis manner, each of the data structures storing the cluster-identifyingdata of each cluster would comprise, by the end of 6250 and 6260, aplurality of session identifiers. In another embodiment, promotionalserver 104 may create a separate table or data structure where thecluster identifiers and the session identifiers are mapped to orassociated with each other.

At 6270, promotional server 104 generates, for each cluster, newcentroid coordinates data, and at 6280, promotional server 104 modifies,in promotional database 106, the centroid coordinates data for eachcluster based on the newly generated centroid coordinates data.Additional details regarding this step may be found in the discussion ofstep 5500 of method 5000 provided herein. As discussed above, eachcluster becomes associated with a plurality of platform sessions at step6260. Thus, at step 6270, promotional server 104 calculates, for each ofthe clusters, a center of mass based on the transformed session recordsdata (or the session coordinates data) of each platform sessionassociated with the cluster. In other words, each cluster is associatedwith a plurality of platform sessions, each having transformed sessioncoordinates data (and/or session coordinates data) that represent apoint in a three-dimensional space. Thus, for each cluster, promotionalserver 104 calculates the average position of the points associated withthe cluster. These average positions, expressed in three-dimensionalcoordinates, comprise the clusters' center of mass. Thus, at 6270,promotional server 104 generates, for each cluster, new centroidcoordinates data corresponding to each cluster's center of mass. At6280, promotional server 104 modifies, for each cluster, the centroidcoordinates data with the newly generated centroid coordinates data thatcorresponds to each cluster's center of mass.

At 6290, promotional server 104 determines whether any cluster'scentroid coordinates data changed as a result of 6270-6280. In oneembodiment, promotional server 104 may do this by temporarily storingthe original values stored in the centroid coordinates data for eachcluster before modifying those values at 6280. Thus, promotional server104 may then compare the temporarily stored values of the centroidcoordinates data with those values stored in the database (correspondingto the newly generated centroid coordinates data). If the originalvalues are equal to the newly generated values, then promotional server104 determines that no cluster's centroid coordinates data changed, andmethod 6000 ends. On the other hand, if promotional server 104determines that the original values are not equal to the newly generatedvalues, then promotional server 104 repeats steps 6220-6290 of method6000. In this manner, the centroid coordinates data iteratively changesuntil the clusters arc identified and, thus, the centroid coordinatesdata becomes stable; e.g., at the end of method 6000, promotionaldatabase 106 stores the centroid coordinates data which comprise thecoordinates of the identified clusters of user behavior as stored in theplatform sessions.

The flow chart operations described with reference to FIGS. 3, 4, 5,16A, and 16B support combinations of means for performing the specifiedfunctions and combinations of operations for performing the specifiedfunctions. It will be understood that one or more operations of the nowcharts, and combinations of operations in the flow charts, may beimplemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems whichperform the specified functions, or combinations of special purposehardware and computer instructions.

CONCLUSION

Many modifications and other embodiments of the disclosures set forthherein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which thesedisclosures pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in theforegoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is tobe understood that the disclosures are not to be limited to the specificembodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments areintended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a genericand descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.

The invention claimed is:
 1. An apparatus comprising a processor and a non-transitory memory storing program instructions, wherein the non-transitory memory and the program instructions are configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to: collect, via an interaction user interface displayed on each of a plurality of client devices associated with a plurality of user accounts, a plurality of session records associated with a plurality of platform sessions, wherein the interaction user interface comprises one or more tiles, one or more item views associated with the one or more tiles, and a query input component; determine, based at least in part on the plurality of session records, a plurality of first-level platform engagement counts associated with the one or more tiles, a plurality of platform query counts associated with the query input component, and a plurality of second-level platform engagement counts associated with the one or more item views; determine a plurality of intermediate first-level platform engagement counts based at least in part on dividing each of the plurality of first-level platform engagement counts by a first-level platform engagement normalization factor; determine a plurality of transformed first-level platform engagement counts based at least in part by dividing the plurality of intermediate first-level platform engagement counts by a session-specific normalization factor; generate session coordinates data based at least in part on the plurality of transformed first-level platform engagement counts, the plurality of platform query counts, and the plurality of second-level platform engagement counts, wherein the session coordinates data defines a platform session location for each of the plurality of platform sessions in a three-dimensional data space; generate cluster-defining data by at least mapping the plurality of session records to the three-dimensional data space based at least in part on the session coordinates data, wherein the cluster-defining data indicates a plurality of data clusters in the three-dimensional data space; and associate each of the plurality of user accounts with at least one of the plurality of data clusters based at least on the session coordinates data and the cluster-defining data.
 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory memory and the program instructions are configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to associate each of the plurality of intermediate first-level platform engagement counts with a session identifier of a plurality of session identifiers associated with the plurality of platform sessions.
 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the non-transitory memory and the program instructions are configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to generate a plurality of transformed session records comprising a plurality of transformed second-level platform engagement counts, a plurality of transformed platform query counts, and the plurality of transformed first-level platform engagement counts.
 4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the non-transitory memory and the program instructions are configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to determine the plurality of transformed second-level platform engagement counts based at least in part by dividing the plurality of second-level platform engagement counts by the session-specific normalization factor.
 5. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the non-transitory memory and the program instructions are configured to, with the processor, cause the apparatus to determine the plurality of transformed platform query counts based at least in part by dividing the plurality of platform query counts by the session-specific normalization factor.
 6. A computer-implemented method comprising: collecting, via an interaction user interface displayed on each of a plurality of client devices associated with a plurality of user accounts, a plurality of session records associated with a plurality of platform sessions, wherein the interaction user interface comprises one or more tiles, one or more item views associated with the one or more tiles, and a query input component; determining, based at least in part on the plurality of session records, a plurality of first-level platform engagement counts associated with the one or more tiles, a plurality of platform query counts associated with the query input component, and a plurality of second-level platform engagement counts associated with the one or more item views; determine a plurality of intermediate first-level platform engagement counts based at least in part on dividing each of the plurality of first-level platform engagement counts by a first-level platform engagement normalization factor; determine a plurality of transformed first-level platform engagement counts based at least in part by dividing the plurality of intermediate first-level platform engagement counts by a session-specific normalization factor; generating session coordinates data based at least in part on the plurality of transformed first-level platform engagement counts, the plurality of platform query counts, and the plurality of second-level platform engagement counts, wherein the session coordinates data defines a platform session location for each of the plurality of platform sessions in a three-dimensional data space; generating cluster-defining data by at least mapping the plurality of session records to the three-dimensional data space based at least in part on the session coordinates data, wherein the cluster-defining data indicates a plurality of data clusters in the three-dimensional data space; and associating each of the plurality of user accounts with at least one of the plurality of data clusters based at least on the session coordinates data and the cluster-defining data.
 7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising associating each of the plurality of intermediate first-level platform engagement counts with a session identifier of a plurality of session identifiers associated with the plurality of platform sessions.
 8. The computer-implemented method of claim 6, further comprising generating a plurality of transformed session records comprising a plurality of transformed second-level platform engagement counts, a plurality of transformed platform query counts, and the plurality of transformed first-level platform engagement counts.
 9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising determining the plurality of transformed second-level platform engagement counts based at least in part by dividing the plurality of second-level platform engagement counts by the session-specific normalization factor.
 10. The computer-implemented method of claim 8, further comprising determining the plurality of transformed platform query counts based at least in part by dividing the plurality of platform query counts by the session-specific normalization factor.
 11. A computer program product comprising at least one non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein, the computer-readable program code portions comprising an executable portion configured to: collect, via an interaction user interface displayed on each of a plurality of client devices associated with a plurality of user accounts, a plurality of session records associated with a plurality of platform sessions, wherein the interaction user interface comprises one or more tiles, one or more item views associated with the one or more tiles, and a query input component; determine, based at least in part on the plurality of session records, a plurality of first-level platform engagement counts associated with the one or more tiles, a plurality of platform query counts associated with the query input component, and a plurality of second-level platform engagement counts associated with the one or more item views; determine a plurality of intermediate first-level platform engagement counts based at least in part on dividing each of the plurality of first-level platform engagement counts by a first-level platform engagement normalization factor; determine a plurality of transformed first-level platform engagement counts based at least in part by dividing the plurality of intermediate first-level platform engagement counts by a session-specific normalization factor; generate session coordinates data based at least in part on the plurality of transformed first-level platform engagement counts, the plurality of platform query counts, and the plurality of second-level platform engagement counts, wherein the session coordinates data defines a platform session location for each of the plurality of platform sessions in a three-dimensional data space; generate cluster-defining data by at least mapping the plurality of session records to the three-dimensional data space based at least in part on the session coordinates data, wherein the cluster-defining data indicates a plurality of data clusters in the three-dimensional data space; and associate each of the plurality of user accounts with at least one of the plurality of data clusters based at least on the session coordinates data and the cluster-defining data.
 12. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer-readable program code portions comprise the executable portion configured to associate each of the plurality of intermediate first-level platform engagement counts with a session identifier of a plurality of session identifiers associated with the plurality of platform sessions.
 13. The computer program product of claim 11, wherein the computer-readable program code portions comprise the executable portion configured to generate a plurality of transformed session records comprising a plurality of transformed second-level platform engagement counts, a plurality of transformed platform query counts, and the plurality of transformed first-level platform engagement counts.
 14. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer-readable program code portions comprise the executable portion configured to determine the plurality of transformed second-level platform engagement counts based at least in part by dividing the plurality of second-level platform engagement counts by the session-specific normalization factor.
 15. The computer program product of claim 13, wherein the computer-readable program code portions comprise the executable portion configured to determine the plurality of transformed platform query counts based at least in part by dividing the plurality of platform query counts by the session-specific normalization factor. 